bmwbiker
June 18th, 2009, 10:18 AM
ZAGREB, CROATIA - - I propose doctor Tudjman as president of the HDZ! – resounded in a rundown shack near the Jarun football club in Zagreb 20 years ago, on June 17, 1989.
http://www.javno.com/slike/slike_3/r2/g2009/m01/x213193202615928826_10.jpg
This sentence was uttered by now one of the most famous fugitives in the region of the former Yugoslavia, Branimir Glavas, after which 48 arms shot up as a sign of support to the late Franjo Tudjman as the man capable of leading a new state movement.
Under the veil of diversions and secrets, in semi-illegality, the Croatian Democratic Union party (HDZ) was founded on that day, which is today the ruling party. But back then it looked more like a secret organisation that grew from a stage of a defence movement to the moving power of creation and change of the political system in Croatia.
That most significant moment in the history of the HDZ, the founding assembly at Zagreb’s Jarun, was carried out like a well-organised secret operation.
Two dozen people knew about the secret assembly
With the intent to trick the then militia (police) and Yugoslav secret services, only a small number of
Founding assembly 1989
At the HDZ’s founding assembly which took place in secret on June 17 in shacks near the Jarun football club, 49 people were in fact present. But the prominent scientist Dragan Lalic walked out of the assembly immediately. He did not agree with the surroundings in which the party was being founded, but thought that the assembly should take place on the full Maksimir stadium.people knew what was being planned that day and most of them found out what was happening after they arrived at the shack. It all began with an announcement that the founding assembly of the HDZ would take place at the Panorama Hotel in Zagreb.
- We had two plans. The first one was that if the founding assembly is not banned, it would take place at the Panorama Hotel. On the other hand, if it was banned, we decided to meet at a secret location. A day before we received a decision that the founding assembly is being banned and it stated that “the content of the programme of the HDZ could upset some members of the party”. The morning after we got the notification, we headed towards the Panorama Hotel to tell people to disperse, but some 20 people secretly knew that the assembly would take place at a secret location and only a few people knew where. The night before I called Glavas and told him to take 20 people and head out from Osijek towards Zagreb. But until they got in front of the football club, which they had a difficult time finding, I did not reveal to them what it was about – the oldest member of the political organisation, the incumbent parliament deputy speaker, Vladimir Seks, told of events preceding the founding of the HDZ.
‘If the militia burst in, we find the HDZ founded’
Before Seks arrived in front of the Panorama Hotel, several hundred people had already gathered there, but Tudjman told a handful of “chosen” people that they would be taken to a secret location. Miroslav Kutle, Milan Kovac and Ciro Grubisis made sure that the assembly would indeed be secret. They found and assessed the barracks next to the football field in Jarun as the best location to hold the assembly and they also tried to keep a high level of secrecy so that information about the meeting would not leak to the militia (police) and secret services.
- The assembly itself was brief, it lasted about half an hour, because everybody was scared the militia would burst in. In his opening speech, Tudjman said the ceremony would be brief and if it did happen that the militia burst in, the HDZ will be considered founded. After his speech, all 48 people present there raised their hands in support of the founding of the HDZ. Brief speeches were given by Tudjman, several young men who arrived with me from Osijek and secretary Bobetko. Josip Manolic drafter the legislative for the founding party, Tudjman’s wife Ankica wrote everything down and took notes and his son Stjepan took photographs – Branimir Glavas told us. He arrived at the founding assembly of the HDZ with 20 other people from Osijek Tudjman trusted the most.
After a proposal by Glavas, Tudjman was elected president of the HDZ and Dalibor Brozovic, Vladimir Seks and Kresimir Balenovic were elected vice-presidents.Petar Segedin and Sime Balen were declared honorary presidents and Milvoj Slavicek became the chairman of the HDZ’s central committee.
Apart from the above mentioned, also attending the founding assembly were Neven Jurica, Ivan Bobetko, the group that secured the conspiracy operation, Miroslav Kutle, Ciro Grubisic and Milan Kovac, Perica Juric, Glavas’s brother Tomislav and Ivan Simic.
Hunt after HDZ sympathisers all over the world
But although June 17, 1989 is marked at the date when the HDZ came into existence, the preparations and spreading of the movement began long before then, Vladimir Seks said.
- The first initiative meeting took place on February 24, 1989 in the facilities of the Croatian Writers’ Association in Zagreb. Then some twenty of us spoke about the founding of a political organisation, the HDZ, as a response and kind of self-defence against the imperialist Greater Serbian policy, because the state top in Croatia had a policy of silence. After that, the network of future members of the HDZ gradually widened. We went all over Croatia and all over the world and collected sympathisers. I sought out sympathisers throughout Slavonia and I also travelled to Germany, Sweden and Australia, while Tudjman went to the United States and Canada. Like fire or wind on the savannah, the HDZ spread throughout the world. The organisation very soon grew to enormous proportions – Seks described the revolutionary spirit which secured the HDZ as a political organisation a firm place on the political scene and opened the doors to Croatia’s secession from Yugoslavia.
Tudjman tricked Marko Veselica
At the time of the founding of the HDZ, the atmosphere was not by far as idyllic as it seemed at first
Glavas’s group
Of the 49 people who were invited to the HDZ’s founding assembly, most people were from Slavonia and Osijek whom Branimir Glavas brought. HDZ’s first president, Franjo Tudjman, had most faith in Glavas’s men, which is also proven by the fact that of the first 700 members the HDZ registered, as many as 500 were from Osijek.glance. Fractions within the movement itself, led by various visions of the party’s future created big problems for the founding of the party.
The strongest fraction, besides the one gathered around Tudjman, was the one that saw Marko Veselica as HDZ president. Veselica was a politician and had been imprisoned in 1981 for a year and given four years of ban of making public statements because of his false presentation of the political situation in Yugoslavia. The group, among others, also included Vlado Veselica, Ivan Paradzik, Ivan Gabelica and Svetozar Pribicevic’s son. According to a theory which surfaced just after June 17, 1989, Veselica was to have been elected first president of the HDZ, but Tudjman prevented this by reporting the HDZ’s founding assembly to police (then militia), which was illegal at the time, and ended in an automatic ban of the assembly. According to witnesses present during the founding of the HDZ, Veselica had no idea that after the ban, the assembly would take place at Jarun.
- It was a classic sham. It was planned beforehand to trick Veselica. Later I spoke with Seks about it and asked him why they tricked Veselica. He replied that “if necessary, one needs to lie for Croatia”, to which I said that anybody who is capable of lying is also capable of killing, and he fell silent – Ivan Zvonimir Cicak told us. He arrived at the Gradska kavana café on June 17, 1989, where the tricked Veselica group was.
Branimir Glavas claims that after the founding of the HDZ, there was a reaction from the Veselica brothers and other fractions that did not recognise “Tudjman’s” HDZ.
- Tudjman wanted to establish a party without them because they were hindering the HDZ’s development process – Glavas said.
Only several founders are still active
Just ten months after the publicly banned, but secretly held founding assembly and three months after the legal approval of its activities which was obtained on February 5, 1990, the HDZ won 60 percent seats in parliament at the first multi-party elections in Croatia and soared into political skies with a victory over the previously ruling Alliance of Communists and coalition of opposition parties.
We do not need to get into much detail in the history of the development of the party, but we should look at what the HDZ represents today in relation to the long ago 1989.
- Twenty years ago the HDZ had a task of getting Croatia out of slavery, which it succeeded. Today, after it managed to accomplish the majority of its goals, which are also national goals, the HDZ is being transformed into a pro-European party identical to other people’s parties in Europe. After one goal was achieved by entering NATO, its primary task headed by Ivo Sanader now is to get Croatia accepted in the European Union – Seks said in the end.
Of the HDZ founders, only a dozen people are today active in politics, of which the most prominent is Vladimir Seks. Of the group of 28 people from Osijek who arrived to Jarun with Glavas, ten of them remained loyal to the HDZ. The rest either went to another party or stopped dealing in politics.
http://www.javno.com/slike/slike_3/r2/g2009/m01/x213193202615928826_10.jpg
This sentence was uttered by now one of the most famous fugitives in the region of the former Yugoslavia, Branimir Glavas, after which 48 arms shot up as a sign of support to the late Franjo Tudjman as the man capable of leading a new state movement.
Under the veil of diversions and secrets, in semi-illegality, the Croatian Democratic Union party (HDZ) was founded on that day, which is today the ruling party. But back then it looked more like a secret organisation that grew from a stage of a defence movement to the moving power of creation and change of the political system in Croatia.
That most significant moment in the history of the HDZ, the founding assembly at Zagreb’s Jarun, was carried out like a well-organised secret operation.
Two dozen people knew about the secret assembly
With the intent to trick the then militia (police) and Yugoslav secret services, only a small number of
Founding assembly 1989
At the HDZ’s founding assembly which took place in secret on June 17 in shacks near the Jarun football club, 49 people were in fact present. But the prominent scientist Dragan Lalic walked out of the assembly immediately. He did not agree with the surroundings in which the party was being founded, but thought that the assembly should take place on the full Maksimir stadium.people knew what was being planned that day and most of them found out what was happening after they arrived at the shack. It all began with an announcement that the founding assembly of the HDZ would take place at the Panorama Hotel in Zagreb.
- We had two plans. The first one was that if the founding assembly is not banned, it would take place at the Panorama Hotel. On the other hand, if it was banned, we decided to meet at a secret location. A day before we received a decision that the founding assembly is being banned and it stated that “the content of the programme of the HDZ could upset some members of the party”. The morning after we got the notification, we headed towards the Panorama Hotel to tell people to disperse, but some 20 people secretly knew that the assembly would take place at a secret location and only a few people knew where. The night before I called Glavas and told him to take 20 people and head out from Osijek towards Zagreb. But until they got in front of the football club, which they had a difficult time finding, I did not reveal to them what it was about – the oldest member of the political organisation, the incumbent parliament deputy speaker, Vladimir Seks, told of events preceding the founding of the HDZ.
‘If the militia burst in, we find the HDZ founded’
Before Seks arrived in front of the Panorama Hotel, several hundred people had already gathered there, but Tudjman told a handful of “chosen” people that they would be taken to a secret location. Miroslav Kutle, Milan Kovac and Ciro Grubisis made sure that the assembly would indeed be secret. They found and assessed the barracks next to the football field in Jarun as the best location to hold the assembly and they also tried to keep a high level of secrecy so that information about the meeting would not leak to the militia (police) and secret services.
- The assembly itself was brief, it lasted about half an hour, because everybody was scared the militia would burst in. In his opening speech, Tudjman said the ceremony would be brief and if it did happen that the militia burst in, the HDZ will be considered founded. After his speech, all 48 people present there raised their hands in support of the founding of the HDZ. Brief speeches were given by Tudjman, several young men who arrived with me from Osijek and secretary Bobetko. Josip Manolic drafter the legislative for the founding party, Tudjman’s wife Ankica wrote everything down and took notes and his son Stjepan took photographs – Branimir Glavas told us. He arrived at the founding assembly of the HDZ with 20 other people from Osijek Tudjman trusted the most.
After a proposal by Glavas, Tudjman was elected president of the HDZ and Dalibor Brozovic, Vladimir Seks and Kresimir Balenovic were elected vice-presidents.Petar Segedin and Sime Balen were declared honorary presidents and Milvoj Slavicek became the chairman of the HDZ’s central committee.
Apart from the above mentioned, also attending the founding assembly were Neven Jurica, Ivan Bobetko, the group that secured the conspiracy operation, Miroslav Kutle, Ciro Grubisic and Milan Kovac, Perica Juric, Glavas’s brother Tomislav and Ivan Simic.
Hunt after HDZ sympathisers all over the world
But although June 17, 1989 is marked at the date when the HDZ came into existence, the preparations and spreading of the movement began long before then, Vladimir Seks said.
- The first initiative meeting took place on February 24, 1989 in the facilities of the Croatian Writers’ Association in Zagreb. Then some twenty of us spoke about the founding of a political organisation, the HDZ, as a response and kind of self-defence against the imperialist Greater Serbian policy, because the state top in Croatia had a policy of silence. After that, the network of future members of the HDZ gradually widened. We went all over Croatia and all over the world and collected sympathisers. I sought out sympathisers throughout Slavonia and I also travelled to Germany, Sweden and Australia, while Tudjman went to the United States and Canada. Like fire or wind on the savannah, the HDZ spread throughout the world. The organisation very soon grew to enormous proportions – Seks described the revolutionary spirit which secured the HDZ as a political organisation a firm place on the political scene and opened the doors to Croatia’s secession from Yugoslavia.
Tudjman tricked Marko Veselica
At the time of the founding of the HDZ, the atmosphere was not by far as idyllic as it seemed at first
Glavas’s group
Of the 49 people who were invited to the HDZ’s founding assembly, most people were from Slavonia and Osijek whom Branimir Glavas brought. HDZ’s first president, Franjo Tudjman, had most faith in Glavas’s men, which is also proven by the fact that of the first 700 members the HDZ registered, as many as 500 were from Osijek.glance. Fractions within the movement itself, led by various visions of the party’s future created big problems for the founding of the party.
The strongest fraction, besides the one gathered around Tudjman, was the one that saw Marko Veselica as HDZ president. Veselica was a politician and had been imprisoned in 1981 for a year and given four years of ban of making public statements because of his false presentation of the political situation in Yugoslavia. The group, among others, also included Vlado Veselica, Ivan Paradzik, Ivan Gabelica and Svetozar Pribicevic’s son. According to a theory which surfaced just after June 17, 1989, Veselica was to have been elected first president of the HDZ, but Tudjman prevented this by reporting the HDZ’s founding assembly to police (then militia), which was illegal at the time, and ended in an automatic ban of the assembly. According to witnesses present during the founding of the HDZ, Veselica had no idea that after the ban, the assembly would take place at Jarun.
- It was a classic sham. It was planned beforehand to trick Veselica. Later I spoke with Seks about it and asked him why they tricked Veselica. He replied that “if necessary, one needs to lie for Croatia”, to which I said that anybody who is capable of lying is also capable of killing, and he fell silent – Ivan Zvonimir Cicak told us. He arrived at the Gradska kavana café on June 17, 1989, where the tricked Veselica group was.
Branimir Glavas claims that after the founding of the HDZ, there was a reaction from the Veselica brothers and other fractions that did not recognise “Tudjman’s” HDZ.
- Tudjman wanted to establish a party without them because they were hindering the HDZ’s development process – Glavas said.
Only several founders are still active
Just ten months after the publicly banned, but secretly held founding assembly and three months after the legal approval of its activities which was obtained on February 5, 1990, the HDZ won 60 percent seats in parliament at the first multi-party elections in Croatia and soared into political skies with a victory over the previously ruling Alliance of Communists and coalition of opposition parties.
We do not need to get into much detail in the history of the development of the party, but we should look at what the HDZ represents today in relation to the long ago 1989.
- Twenty years ago the HDZ had a task of getting Croatia out of slavery, which it succeeded. Today, after it managed to accomplish the majority of its goals, which are also national goals, the HDZ is being transformed into a pro-European party identical to other people’s parties in Europe. After one goal was achieved by entering NATO, its primary task headed by Ivo Sanader now is to get Croatia accepted in the European Union – Seks said in the end.
Of the HDZ founders, only a dozen people are today active in politics, of which the most prominent is Vladimir Seks. Of the group of 28 people from Osijek who arrived to Jarun with Glavas, ten of them remained loyal to the HDZ. The rest either went to another party or stopped dealing in politics.