From hca@antenna.nl
Orig-To: HCALIST@ZAMIR-ZG.ztn.apc.org
subject: protest to Mr. Granic
Date: Mon, 30 Oct 1995 08:12:11 +0000
 
Dear friends,
you all know what happened on the way back from Tuzla. Mr.
Radovan  Jovic, one of the participants from Serbia was
arrested, and  moreover, the treatement that all the
participants from Serbia and Montenegro received was harsh
and rude. We are therefore doing everything possible to
protest against this to the Croatian authorities. The
American, the Dutch, the Swedish and the German Embassies in
Zagreb are exercising strong pressure abouth the case.
 
Probably Mient Jan and Gert Weisskirchen are going to Zagreb
soon, to talk to different people and try to visit Mr. Jovic
in prison. It would be very good if you also do something in
your country. Some hCa committees are already organizing
press-conferences and some are mobilizing their governments
to put pressure on the Croation authorities. Attached to
this is the protest letter we sent to Mr. Granic, Minister
of Foreign Affairs of Croatia. You can also use it. If you
want to have more information about the arrests and about
Mr.
Jovic, please contact us as soon as possible.
 
Regards,
Tatjana
| Helsinki Citizens' Assembly Western Liaison Office
| P.O.Box 85893, 2508 CN The Hague, The Netherlands
| phone: 31 70 35 55 444; fax: 31 70 35 55 199
 
 
Subject: trip through Croatia
Date: Wed, 01 Nov 1995 23:08:48 +0100
LONG JOURNEY FROM TUZLA
 
Dear friends,
 
This letter is to inform you about experience of the group
of participants of t
he IV Annual  Assembly of the hCa from Serbia and Montenegro
on their way back from Tuzla. As you know, two buses with
almost half of the participants from Serbia and Mon
tenegro stayed in Metkovic for 9 and half hours waiting for
clearance of visas for their fellow-participants from the
former Soviet Union. During that time the group was not let
out of the buses save when the toilet was needed. The food
provided as lunch packages
in Tuzla was not sufficient, nor water was provided during
that time. After 3 a.m., when
 Ms. Mary Kaldor and Mr. Mint Jan Faber came back to
Metkovic, the group was allowed to enter  Croatia.
 
The group reached Tucepi at 4:30 a.m. and had to live the
hotel "Alga" at noon.
 However, sometime between 8:30 and 11:15 a.m. our colleague
and fellow-participant  Mr. Radovan Jovic, an ex-judge from
Glina, was arrested in his room (no. 333) where due to the
blockage of the spine he was lying in the bad. He was
arrested by 4 persons in
civil suits and taken by the ambulance followed by a regular
police car with two uniformed
police officers. Few minutes after, 4 undercover agents from
the room and 2 more left
the parking lot in front of the hotel. We were informed that
he was to be taken to
the hospital for the first medical aid and then to be
interrogated. Our request that our law
yer, Mr. Nikola Barovic, and our physicist, Dr. Dragoslav
Pavlovic, accompany him was denied. Let us add, that police
has checked  Mr. Jovic identity in Metkovic - his passport
was the only one that was returned with the delay and with
request from the police officer to see his face.
 
We have informed Mr. Peter Galbreit immediately, as well as
the ambassadors of
Spain, Hungary and Germany, the hCa, the Croatian Helsinki
Committee, the Anti-War Campaign (Zagreb), Dalmatian
Solidarity Committee (Split), attorneys-at-law, Mr. Srdj
Jaksic (Dubrovnik, participant at the Assembly) and Mr.
Mirko Francheski (Split), media, and Yugoslav Mission in
Zagreb.
 
We left Tucepi after two officers form the Public Security
Office, as they introduced
themselves, spoke to Nikola Barovic and Vladan Vasilijevic
about the arrest of
Mr. Jovic at 3:30 p.m. They informed Mr. Barovic and Mr.
Vasilijevic that they did not know where Mr. Jovic had been
taken to nor by whom. Furthermore, they suggested that the
arrest might been undertaken by uncontrolled group, though
it was obvious to all people present at the hotel that it
was done by the police. That gave room for doubting about
the life of Mr. Jovic for it wouldn't be the first time that
someone simply disappeared.   ( It was only on October 25,
that the secretary from the American Embassy informed us
that the Ambassador was informed by the Ministry of Interior
of Croatia that Mr. Jovic was in prison in Zagreb. We got
this information only when we entered Hungry, at 8 a.m.  )
 
This is a starting point of a long and miserable trip we had
through Croatia Lunch packages were not provided for all
participants. Water was not provided at all. Nevertheless,
stops were not made to enable travelers to continue their
journey in dignity. Moreover, even necessary stops were made
only twice and along the road, in the bushe. The idea of the
police was obviously to keep us away from telephone lines
and to get us
out of Croatia as soon as possible, though our visa was
valid until midnight, October 25,
1995. Even participants who had menaged to extend their
visas were asked to leave the
territory of Croatia.
 
The group was de facto arrested. Even travelers from Split
and Zagreb were not let out of
the buses without checking of their identity documents. The
trip took longer than
necessary, for the police controls were changing almost each
20 kilometers, always with
the delay and with counting of the passengers as if we had
been let of the busses.
Moreover, the behavior of the drivers and representatives of
the bus company was
outrageous. Besides helping the Croatian police in their
endeavor, they asked passengers
that were left without water, to pay 1 DEM for coffee and
requested from the police to
continue the trip even when the police was willing to stop
so that they can make it faster to
Prag.Needless to say that the only support we had was the
support from our coordinator Ms Lidija Grebo, and our
colleagues from Split and Zagreb, who went through all this
misery with us. Therefore, we accepted information on Ms.
Grebo resignation with deepest
sorrow.
 
All this that happened during the trip through Croatia did
not spoil nice memories we have
of Tuzla Assembly and Tuzla itself, but puts people on alert
with regard to future similar
endeavors. Especially the fact that one of the participants
was arrested during that trip.
 
With best wishes for the future work of the hCa,
 
Sincerely yours,
 
For the group of participants of the IV Annual Assembly of
the hCa in Tuzla from Serbia
and Montengro,
 
Elena Popovic
Belgrade, October 28, 1995