Franjo Tuđman

Franjo Tuđman
1st President of Croatia
In office May 30, 1990 – December 10, 1999
Prime Minister	Stjepan Mesić (1990) Josip Manolić (1990-1991) Franjo Gregurić (1991-1992) Hrvoje Šarinić (1992-1993) Nikica Valentić (1993-1995) Zlatko Mateša (1995-1999)
Preceded by	Office established
Succeeded by	Vlatko Pavletić (acting)
Personal details
Born	(1922-05-14)May 14, 1922 Veliko Trgovišće, Kingdom of Yugoslavia
Died	December 10, 1999(1999-12-10) (aged 77) Zagreb, Croatia
Resting place	Mirogoj, Zagreb, Croatia
Political party	Croatian Democratic Union
Spouse	Ankica Tuđman (née Žumbar)
Alma mater	Military Academy Belgrade
Profession	Politician, historian, soldier
Military service
Allegiance	Yugoslavia
Branch/service	Yugoslav Partisans (1942-1945) Yugoslav People's Army Ground Forces (1945-1961)
Years of service	1941-1961
Rank	Major General
Battles/wars	World War II Yugoslav Front

Franjo Tuđman (Croatian pronunciation: [frɑːɲɔ ˈtudʑmɑːn] ) (14 May 1922 – 10 December 1999) was a Croatian historian, writer and politician. He was the first President of Croatia.

In his youth he fought during World War II as a member of the Yugoslav partisans, becoming later the youngest general in the Yugoslav army. After his military career, he worked as a historian for many years until coming into conflict with the regime. He lived relatively anonymously in the following years until the end of communism, whereupon he began his political career by founding the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) in 1989.

He became President in 1990, as the HDZ won the first post-communist multi-party elections, and a year later he proclaimed Croatian independence. He was re-elected twice and remained in power until his death in 1999.

Early years

Franjo Tuđman's birth house in Veliko Trgovišće

Franjo Tuđman was born in Veliko Trgovišće, a village in the Hrvatsko Zagorje region of northern Croatia, then a part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. There is no clear evidence about the origins of the surname Tuđman, which means "foreigner". Some sources point to a Hungarian origin, others claim it is German. The first recorded persons with the surname were Michael Tugyman mentioned in the 17th century registry from Hrvatsko Zagorje and Petar Tuđman (born in 1735), however there is no clear evidence of a direct genealogy linking these persons to Franjo Tuđman. A few people, mostly around Oroslavje where it is thought to have originated, bear this surname.

His father Stjepan owned a tavern and was an important member of the HSS ( Croatian Peasant Party). He had been president of the HSS committee in Veliko Trgovišće for 16 years (1925–1941) and had been elected as mayor of Veliko Trgovišće in 1936 and 1938. Mato, Andraš and Juraj, brothers of Stjepan Tuđman, emigrated to America. Another brother Valentin also tried to emigrate but a travelling accident prevented him and kept him in Veliko Trgovišće, where he worked as an (uneducated ) veterinarian.

Besides Franjo, Stjepan Tuđman had an elder daughter Danica Ana (who died as a baby ), Ivica (born in 1924 ) and Stjepan "Štefek" (born in 1926 ).
When Franjo Tuđman was 7 his mother Justina (née Gmaz ) died while bearing her fifth child. Stjepan Tuđman later married Olga Milažara; from the available description of Ankica Tuđman that marriage seemed to be happy. From Tuđman's viewpoint Olga treated the children as her own Franjo Tuđman's mother was religious, unlike his father and stepmother. His father, like Stjepan Radić, had anticlerical attitudes and young Franjo adopted his attitudes. As a child Franjo Tuđman served as an altar boy in the local parish. Franjo Tuđman attended elementary school in his native village from September 15 1929 to June 30 1933 and he was an excellent student.

He attended secondary school for eight years, starting in the autumn 1935. The reasons for the interruption are not clear, but it is assumed that the primary cause was an economic crisis in that period. According to some sources the local parish helped young Franjo to continue his education and his classmaster even proposed him to be educated to become a priest.

When he was 15 his father brought him to Zagreb, where he met Vladko Maček, the president of the Croatian Peasant Party (HSS). At first young Franjo liked the HSS, but later he turned towards communism. On November 5, 1940 he was arrested during student demonstrations celebrating the anniversary of the Soviet October revolution.

World war II

On April 10 1941, when Slavko Kvaternik proclaimed the NDH (independent state of Croatia)Tuđman left school and started publishing secret newspapers with his friend Vlado Stopar. He was recruited into the Yugoslav partisans at the beginning of 1942 by Marko Belinić.

His father also joined the partisans and became a founder of ZAVNOH. According to Tuđman, his father was arrested by the Ustaše, and one of his brothers was taken to a concentration camp. They both managed to survive, unlike the youngest brother Stjepan who was killed by the Gestapo fighting for the Partisans in 1943.

Tuđman was travelling between Zagreb and Zagorje using false documents which identified him as a member of the Croatian Home Guard. There he was helping to activate a partisan division in Zagorje. On May 11, 1942 while carrying Belinić's letter he was arrested by Ustaše, but managed to escape from a police station.

Career in Belgrade

Franjo Tuđman and Ankica Žumbar were married on May 25, 1945 at the Belgrade city council. In this way they wanted to confirm their faith in the communist movement and the importance of civil ritual over religious ones. (In May 1945 the new regime created the law which allowed civil weddings, taking weddings (among other things) out of Church jurisdiction). They returned to work the same day.

On April 26, 1946 his father Stjepan and stepmother were found dead. Tuđman has never managed to clarify the circumstances of their death.According to the police finding his father Stjepan killed his wife and then himself. Other theories accuse Ustaše guerrilla (Crusaders) and members of the Yugoslav secret police. (OZNA). Even Tuđman himself has stated different version of that stories.

Like many partisans Franjo and Ankica did not graduate from secondary school. They did that after the war, in Belgrade. He graduated from the Partisan Gymnasium in 1945. and she finished five semesters of English language in the Yugoslav Foreign Office.

In 1953 Tuđman was promoted to the position of colonel and in 1959 he became a general. At the age of 38, he had become the youngest general in the Yugoslav army.

His career rise was not extreme but it was atypical for a Croat because senior officers were increasingly likely to be Serbs and Montenegrins. (i.e. in the 1962 Serbs and Montenegrins composed 70% of army generals )

Tuđman attended the military academy in Belgrade, like many officers who did not have formal military education. He graduated from the tactics school on July 18, 1957 as an excellent student. One of his teacher was Dušan Bilandžić,his future advisor.

In 1952 he became the president of TK Partizan. On May 23, 1954 he became secretary of JSD Partizan Belgrade. and in the May 1958 its president becoming the first colonel on that position (all previous were generals ) He was placed on that position in order to solve administration problems inside of the club, especially football section.When he came there Partisan was a kind of intelligence battle field where leaders of UDBA and KOS struggled for influence inside the society. That has caused clubs (despite having notable and good players) bringing bad results , especially its football section. During his presidentship were elected black-white stripes uniform that are used till nowadays.According to Tuđman he wanted to create a club that would have a pan-Yugoslav image and oppose to Red Star that had excludively Serbian image. Tuđman was inspired by FC Juventus uniforms.However, Stjepan Bobek (former player of FK Partizan) claimed that uniform colors idea was in fact his which he forwarded to Tuđman. Tuđman's leadership of Partizan was quite successful. After he left Partizan.Tuđman's favorite sport ,however, became tennis. He used to play it almost up to his death.

Institute

In 1963. he becomes professor at Faculty of political sciences (University of zagreb) where he teaches "Socialist revolution and contemporary national history". Tuđman left active army service in 1961 on his own request and began to work at the Institut za historiju radničkoga pokreta Hrvatske (English: Institute for the History of Workers' Movement of Croatia), and remained its director until 1967.In three years he created main research institution. His insisting of Croatian interpretation of history has turned into his enemies some professors from University of Zagreb like Mirjana Gross and Ljubo Boban. In April 1964. Boban has denounced Tuđman as "nationalist" During Tuđman's leadeship Institute became source of alternative interpretations of Yugoslav history. which caused his conflict with official Yugoslav historiography. He, however, did not have an appropriate academic degree which would make him valid historian.He began to realize that he will need doctorate in order to keep his position.His dissertation was titled "Causes of crisis of monarchistic Yugoslavia, from unification 1918 till breakdown in 1941." and it was in fact compilation of some of his previously published works. Faculty of Philosophy at University of Zagreb has rejected his dissertation under excuse that some parts of it were already published. Faculty of Philosophy in Zadar (then part of University of Zagreb,today University of Zadar) however, accepted it and he graduated on December 28 1965. Members of his committee were Vaso Bogdanov,Kosta Milutinović and Dinko Foretić,professors at University of Zadar. In his thesis he stated that primary cause of Yugoslavia's breakdown was repressive and corrupted regime unlike the contemporary mainstream Yugoslav historiography which considered Croatian nationalism to be primary cause. Bogdanov and Milutinović (both ethnic Serbs) did not object to that. However, publisher "Naprijed" from Zagreb has cancelled the contract with him following his refusal to change some "controversial" statements inside of it. Tuđman stated that Kingdom of Yugoslavia was destroyed by toughness of Serbs not by demands of Croats. Tuđman supported the Declaration on the Status and Name of the Croatian Literary Language. The Parliament of Croatia and League of Communists of Croatia from Zagreb , however, attacked it and board of institute requested Tuđman's resignation. for taking nationalistic attitudes. In December 1966 Ljubo Boban accused Tuđman for plagiarism. He stated that Tuđman compiled 4/5 of his doctorate thesis from articles published previously in magazine "Forum" and rest of it from Boban's thesis. He was expelled from an institute and forcibly retired in 1967. He was banned to make public activities as well.

Between 1962 and 1967 he was the president of "Main committee for international relations of Croatian league of communists main board". and deputy in Croatian parliament between 1965 and 1969.

Dissident politics

Apart from his book on guerrilla warfare, Tuđman wrote a series of articles criticizing the Yugoslav Socialistestablishment. His most important book from that period was Velike ideje i Mali narodi ("Great ideas and small nations"), a monograph on political history that collided with central dogmas of Yugoslav Communist elite with regard to the interconnectedness of the national and social elements in the Yugoslav revolutionary war (during WWII). In 1970 he was appointed to the society of Croatian writers In 1971 he was sentenced to two years of prison for subversive activities during the Croatian Spring. According to Tuđman's own testimony, Yugoslav President Marshal Josip Broz Tito personally intervened to recommend the court be lenient in his case, sparing him a far longer sentence. The authorities of SR Croatia additionally intended to prosecute Tuđman for a sentence of 15–20 years imprisonment and hard labor on charges of espionage, which was averted by President Tito's intervention. Other sources mention that writer Miroslav Krleža was lobbying for Tuđman. According to Tuđman, he and Tito were close friends.
However, Tuđman described Tito's destruction of Croatian spring as "autocratic coup d'etat" In the jail Tuđman used to complain about health although jail physician considered him as a big faker. The Croatian Spring was a national movement that was actually set in motion by Josip Broz Tito and Croatian party chairman Vladimir Bakarić in the climate of growing liberalism in the late 60s. It was initially a tepid and ideologically controlled party liberalism, but it soon grew into mass nationalist-based manifestation of dissatisfaction with the position of Croatia withinYugoslavia, and threatened the party's political monopoly. As a result, the movement was suppressed by Tito, who used the military and the police to put a stop to what he saw as separatism and a threat to the party's influence. Bakarić quickly distanced himself from the Croatian Communist leadership that he himself helped gain power earlier, and sided with the Yugoslav president. However, Tito took the protesters' demands into consideration, and in 1974 the new Yugoslav constitution granted the majority of the demands sought by the Croatian Spring.

Tuđman felt that what was originally a Croatian Romantic pan-Slavic idea from the 19th century had mutated into the front for what he claimed was a pan-Serbian drive for domination over non-Serb people.

On other topics like Communism and one-party monopoly, Tuđman remained mostly within the framework of Communist ideology. His sentence was commuted by Tito's government and Tuđman was released after nine months.

In 1977 he travelled to Sweden using false (Swedish) passport in order to meet Croatian diaspora. His trip appeared to be undiscovered by Yugoslav police. However, on that trip he gave an interview to Swedish TV about the position of Croats in Yugoslavia that was later broadcast. Tuđman was trialed in 1981 for having spread "enemy propaganda". On February 20, 1981 he was found guilty and sentenced to three years of prison and 5 years in house-prison. However , he served only a portion (this time eleven months). He was also banned from public ativities in the period of 5 years. In June 1987 he becomes the member of Croatian PEN center. On June 6, 1987 he flew in Canada with his wife Ankica in order to meet with Croatian Canadians. They both wished to travel at that time:she was tyred of repressive athmosphere in Zagreb in that time and he consider Croatian diaspora to be wealthier and more influential than it has been in reality. They were trying not to discuss "touchy" issues with emigrants being afraid that some of their spectators might be in fact agents of Yugoslav secret police (UDBA) which was a common practice. At their arrival to Zagreb they were waiting for their luggage more than an hour and after that they were questioned for 3 hours by the local police chief.

In his trips to Canada he met many Croatian emigrants that were native of Herzegovina or had ancestry in Herzegovina. Some of them became members of future governments, such as Gojko Šušak.That meetings later were base of numerous conspiracy theories. According to them on that meeting Herzegovinian Croats earned too big influence inside HDZ, as well as in entire Croatia.

Formation of the national program

In the latter part of the 1980s, when Yugoslavia was creeping towards its demise, torn by conflicting national aspirations, Tuđman formulated a Croatian national program that can be summarized in the following way:

• The primary goal is establishment of the Croatian nation-state; therefore all ideological disputes from the past should be thrown away. In practice, this meant strong support from anti-Communist Croatian diaspora, especially financial.

• Even though Tuđman's final goal was an independent Croatia, he was well aware of the realities of internal and foreign policy. So, his chief initial proposal was not a fully independent Croatia, but a confederal Yugoslavia with growing decentralization and democratization.

• Tuđman envisaged Croatia's future as a welfare capitalist state that will inevitably move towards central Europe and away from the Balkans.

• With regard to the burning issues of national conflicts, his vision was the following (at least at the beginning): he asserted that Serbian nationalism controlled JNA (Yugoslav People's Army: Serbs, who constituted less than 40% of Yugoslavia's population, made ca. 80% of commissioned officers corps) could wreak havoc on Croatian and Bosnian soil. The JNA, according to some estimates the fourth European military force re firepower, was being rapidly Serbianized, both ideologically and ethnically, in less than four years. Tuđman's proposal was that Serbs in Croatia, who made up 12% of Croatia's population, should gain cultural with elements of territorial autonomy.

• As far as Bosnia and Herzegovina was concerned, Tuđman was more ambivalent: Tuđman did not take a separate Bosnia seriously as shown by his comments to a television crew "Bosnia was a creation of the Ottoman invasion [...] Until then it was part of Croatia, or it was a kingdom of Bosnia, but a Catholic kingdom, linked to Croatia." He thought that Bosniaks are, essentially, Croats of Muslim faith and will, freed from Communist censorship, declare themselves ethnically as Croats, therefore making Bosnia a predominantly Croatian country (with 44% Bosniaks, 17% Croats and 33% Serbs). But, these illusions were soon dispelled.

The President of Croatia

Internal tensions that had broken up the Communist party of Yugoslavia prompted the governments of federal Republics to call for the first free multiparty elections after 1945.

His first journey in 1989 was to the Theresian Military Academy in Vienna in Austria, where he got as a General from his Austro-Hungarian Army friends a public meeting organized on 5 March 1989, where he met people like Ivo Sanader, Ivan Milas and others. Since then is the role of Austria on the Balkans very suspicious, see: Vienna Capital Partners. Immediately Fiat, a co-manufacturer of Zastava in Serbia also still in Yugoslavia as Croatia at that time, wanted to buy and extend the factory, which at the time was producing more than 250'000 cars a year. Slobodan Milošević personally intervened. "We will not sell off our(!!!) country's wealth." The Breakup of Yugoslavia and its Brotherhood and unity became perfect.

Essentially, this was a nationalist Croatian movement that affirmed Croatian values based on Catholicism blended with historical and cultural traditions generally suppressed in Communist Yugoslavia. The aim was to gain national independence and to establish a Croatian nation-state. His party triumphed and got around 60% seats in the Croatian Parliament. After a few constitutional changes, which included his refusal to endorse the Serbs' place in the Croat constitution inflamed Serb opinion in Croatia, resulting in many Serbs being purged from their jobs in the police, security forces, the media and factories. Tuđman was elected to the position of President of Croatia. The pragmatic Ljubljana suspected that their continued cooperation with Tuđman would create its accounts in order to lose in an unreliability that, what has already been purchased. He introduced economic sanctions against Ljubljana and he intended as an old Yugoslav General, who became a president of Croatia, to punish also Croatia, because it was not possible to make any serious business with him. Germany's foreign policy started to analyze his economic policy: "HDZ was not just corrupt, but it followed an idea: There should be created by Tuđman a layer of reliable national entrepreneurs as a counterpart to the party system. An important role should be played by the emmigrants, but most of them are too serious for such jokes and the richest Croatian emmigrants among them make best businesses in Moscow, Shanghai and Tel Aviv. HDZ decayed rapidly in this idea and became a corrupt party system of privatization." He was active only when in abroad more and more criticism about him and his country was suggested. In 1991, a newspaper in Jerusalem compared him with Goebbels, Croatia tried to get some international recognition especially by the USA and Israel at that time. The reaction on the newspaper from 1991 in Jerusalem took place in 2002 in a newspapers in Zagreb, namely, that in 1938 an incredible number of Jews from Austria and Germany fled to Zagreb, from where several more traveled soon to Shanghai. There were more Jews rescued by Croats than by Serbs.

Since the split among Communists in Yugoslavia on a national basis was already a fact at that time (according to prevalent opinion, that was primarily Serbian leader Slobodan Milošević's responsibility ), it was inevitable that the conflict should continue after the democratic elections that brought to power non-Communists in Croatia, Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, while Communists held their position in Serbia and Montenegro. For the tensions and wars that ensued, one should see history of Croatia and history of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The importance of Tuđman's leadership was seen at crucial junctures of Croatia's history: the all-out war against combined forces of Yugoslav Army and Serbian irredentist rebels, war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Operation Storm and the Dayton peace agreement. For instance: Tuđman's strategy of stalling the Yugoslav Army in 1991 by signing frequent cease fires intermediated by foreign diplomats was efficient — when the first cease fire was signed, the emerging Croatian Army had seven brigades; the last, twentieth cease fire the Croats had met with 64 brigades. However, he failed on 2 and 3 August 1991 to make a truce with Ante Marković and Slobodan Milošević, after a successful Croatian military action, he had in haste invited mediators of the EC to observe this ceasefire negotiations with Ante Marković and Slobodan Milošević. Ante Marković was the best ally of the U.S. in Yugoslavia. The Greek cruise ship MTS Oceanos sank off the Wild Coast of South Africa one day later on 4 August 1991. Germany was caught and paid 800 Million Mark. Such way it was not possible to end the war quickly. Until the end of the war were about 40 different nations leading a war against each other. Milošević claimed later in Den Haag that NATO had attacked Yugoslavia. Tuđman and Milošević were accused that Croatia and Serbia had attacked Bosnia and Hercegovina. On 30 August 1991 after meeting with President Francois Mitterrand, Mr. Tuđman said that growing violence posed a "danger for all of Europe".

Tuđman has been accused that his domestic policy is quite non-democratic.

Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev met with Croatian President Franjo Tuđman at the Moscow Kremlin on 1 October 1991. Later said Mr. Tuđman, that then George Soros had begun with the subversion of 290 organizations in Croatia. Later it became public that at that time Croatia and Serbia sold together 15 tanks produced in Croatia to Kuwait and that Iran had sent an extraordinary ambassador of Iran for Bosnia and Hercegovina to Austria. Over Bosnia and Hercegovina was imposed a flight prohibition, the Serbian planes were actually the property of Iraq.

Even during his presidency there were circles in society who claimed that Mr Tuđman's rule was autocratic and that he showed little sensitivity to criticism. In particular, these circles consider that during the Tuđman era civil rights record to the minority Serb population was poor. In 2001 a review from the IPI reported about an increased number of libel law suits that were initiated during Tuđman's mandate.

On November 1 1999 he has appeared in the public for the last time. While being hospitalized opposition parties accused ruling HDZ that Tuđman was already death and that HDZ were keeping his death secret in order to gain better score on coming parliamentary election. Tuđman's death was officially declared on December 10, 1999.

Controversies

The most common accusation is that of autocratic behavior and despotism. However, many argue that, faced with a superior military aggressor, the Croats, who had not yet built functioning national institutions, had to rely on a strong personal leadership Tuđman embodied. Although such kind of leadership necessarily involved unpleasant side-effects like traits of autocratic behavior, it might have been beneficial in crucial matters, as the Croats under Tuđman won the war and founded the nation-state, at least partly thanks to this characteristic. Some of his critics mention Gojko Šušak as his version of Darth Vader.

There have been written many opinions by various authors that knew a little about Croatian history but they were dead certain that Tuđman was hard-line nationalist. Lot of scholars inside Yugoslavia (as well as the foreign ones) used to consider Serbs and Serbia as "core of Yugoslavia". Some of them used terms "Croat" and "Ustaša" as synonyms.

War involvement in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Franjo Tuđman and Slobodan Milošević meeting in Karađorđevo on alleged agreement

Main articles: Karađorđevo agreement and Bosnian War

Secret discussions between Franjo Tuđman and Slobodan Milošević on the division of Bosnia and Herzegovina between Serbia and Croatia were held as early as March 1991 known as Karađorđevo agreement or Karađorđevo meeting. Following the declaration of independence of Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Serbs attacked different parts of the country. The state administration of Bosnia and Herzegovina effectively ceased to function having lost control over the entire territory. The Serbs wanted all lands where Serbs had a majority, eastern and western Bosnia. The Croats and their leader Franjo Tuđman also aimed at securing parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina as Croatian. The policies of the Republic of Croatia and its leader Franjo Tuđman towards Bosnia and Herzegovina were never totally transparent and always included Franjo Tuđman's ultimate aim of expanding Croatia's borders. In the Tihomir Blaškić verdict, the Trial Chamber found that "Croatia, and more specifically former President Tuđman, was hoping to partition Bosnia and exercised such a degree of control over the Bosnian Croats and especially the HVO that it is justified to speak of overall control."

All "proofs" for this "agreement" are based on rumours of the persons that were no present at the meeting. There is not any record of this meeting that proves existence of any agreement. Stjepan Mesić, the president of Croatia, revealed thousands of documents and audio tapes recorded by Franjo Tuđman about his plans during a case against Croat leaders from Bosnia and Herzegovina for war crimes committed against Bosniaks. The tapes reveal that Tuđman and Milosević ignored pledges to respect Bosnia's sovereignty, even after signing the Dayton accord. In one conversation Tuđman told an official: "Let's make a deal with the Serbs. Neither history nor emotion in the Balkans will permit multinationalism. We have to give up on the illusion of the last eight years... Dayton isn't working. Nobody- except diplomats and petty officials - believes in a sovereign Bosnia and the Dayton accords." In another he is heard telling a Bosnian Croat ally: "You should give no indication that we wish the three-way division of Bosnia." The tapes also reveal Tuđman's involvement in atrocities against the Bosniaks in Bosnia including the Croatian president covering up war crimes at Ahmići where more than a hundred Bosniak men, women and children were terrorised, and then shot or burned to death.

In 1997, the HDZ government undertook several programs to refurbish Tuđman's tarnished image, especially in the eyes of the West.

Tuđman, who had been thrice elected as President of Croatia, fell ill with cancer in 1993. He recovered, but the general state of health declined in 1999 and Tuđman died from an internal hemorrhage on December 10, 1999.

In 2004, six Bosnian Croats Jadranko Prlić, Bruno Stojić, Slobodan Praljak, Milivoj Petković, Valentin Corić, and Berislav Pušić were accused by the ICTY for being part of a joint criminal enterprise which included mass war crimes against Bosniak population during creation of ethnically pure Croatian quasi-state Herzeg-Bosnia on the territories of internationally recognized state of Bosnia and Herzegovina. According to the indictment numerous persons participated in this joint criminal enterprise. Each participant, by his or her acts, omissions, practices or conduct, both individually and in concert with or through other persons, substantially contributed to carrying out the enterprise and accomplishing its purpose. Franjo Tuđman, among others, participated in the joint criminal enterprise. As the indictment mentions not just former President of the Republic of Croatia, Franjo Tuđman, but also other key figures from the Republic of Croatia (Gojko Šušak, former Minister of Defence and Janko Bobetko senior General), the government of the Republic of Croatia in 2006, filed the motion to be allowed to participate in the trial as the amicus curiae in order to "assist in the interpretation of historical and political facts and the determination of truth". The ICTY dismissed Croatia’s motion to appear as amicus curiae in the case, concluding that "it would not be in the interests of justice to allow a state – whose former political and military officials are named in the indictment as the participants in the joint criminal enterprise – to participate in the proceedings as the amicus curiae."

War crimes allegations

It is true that Mr. Tuđman was not charged because he is dead, but alive, he would be here on the accused bench. General Bobetko, that he was alive, he would be accused of the bench. It should be borne in mind when talking about a joint criminal enterprise.

— Judge Jean-Claude Antonetti

Had Tuđman lived longer, he would have been possibly brought up on war crimes charges by the UN Yugoslav war crimes tribunal in The Hague. Graham Blewitt, a senior Tribunal prosecutor, told the AFP wire service that "There would have been sufficient evidence to indict president Tuđman had he still been alive." The Tribunal's indictment of Croatian general Ante Gotovina lists Tuđman as a key participant in a "joint criminal enterprise" aimed at the "permanent removal of the Serb population from the "Krajina" region by killing, force, fear or threat of force, persecution, forced displacement, transfer and deportation, appropriation and destruction of property other minority belongings & means." In 1995, Carl Bildt had suggested that Franjo Tuđman was as guilty of war crimes as the "Krajina" Serb leader Milan Martić. Bildt was declared a persona non grata by Croatia following these statements. because he "lost the credibility necessary for the role of a peace mediator".

In the case of Gotovina et al., the Trial Chamber found Franjo Tudjman to had been the leader of a joint criminal enterprise the purpose of which was to permanently remove the Serb civilian population from the region of Croatia known as Krajina. The Chamber found that Tudjman was a key member and that he intended to repopulate the Krajina with Croats.

Privatization controversy

Main article: Croatian privatization controversy

President Tuđman initiated the process of privatization and de-nationalization in Croatia. However, this was far from transparent and fully legal. The fact that the new government's legal system was inefficient and slow, as well as the wider context of the Yugoslav wars caused numerous incidents known collectively in Croatia as the "privatization robbery" (Croatian: privatizacijska pljačka). Nepotism was endemic and during this period many influential individuals with the backing of the ruling party acquired state-owned property and companies at extremely low prices, afterwards selling them off piecemeal to the highest bidder for much larger sums. In the vast majority of cases this caused the bankruptcy of the (previously successful) firm, causing the unemploymentof thousands of citizens, a problem Croatia still struggles with to this day.

It is also beyond doubt that not few shadowy figures who moved close to Tuđman, the centre of power in Croatian society, profited from this enormously, having amassed wealth with suspicious celerity. Although this phenomenon is common to chaotic reforms in most post-communist societies (the best example being Russia with her "oligarchs"), the majority of Croats are of the opinion that Tuđman could and should have prevented at least a part of these malfeasances because nothing similar has happened to Slovenia, which had also been part of the former Yugoslavia. The most common allegations sprouting from this state that he probably personally profited from this.

The charge of nepotism and favoritism (elitism), frequently leveled at Tuđman himself, has been resolved in 2007 when his daughter, Nevenka Tuđman, was found guilty of corruption, but set free because too many years has passed from time of the crime. There are also other instances of apparent family nepotism. His son Miroslav Tuđman occupied the position of Chief of the HIS, the Croatian secret service, during the time of his father's presidency. Franjo Tuđman is often accused of having acquired his personal property by dishonest means.

The Horrors of War

In 1989 Tuđman published his probably most famous work, The Horrors of War or Wastelands of Historical Reality (Bespuća povijesne zbiljnosti) in which he questioned the number of victims during World War II in Yugoslavia. It then slowly spirals towards the true center of his work: the attack on what he claimed was a hyperinflation of Serbian casualties in the Independent State of Croatia (NDH).

Most of Serbian mainstream historians have claimed that the number of Serbs killed in the Jasenovac concentration camp was between 300,000 and 800,000.Many of them, however, were exaggerating with accusation. Serbian historian Pero Morača claimed that all Croats supported Ustaše during World War II and academic Vasilije Krestić published the book in which he describes Croats as "genocide nation".Many researchers such as the Israeli Yad Vashem of the center for Holocaust studies and the Simon Wiesenthal Center, still maintains similar figures, which were also reported by German, Italian, Croatian and partisan generals during the war. However some Croatian historians and some other international organizations such as the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and the Jasenovac museum are speaking of less than 100,000 victims. That number is supported also by Croatian Jewish historiographer Ivo Goldstein. The last serious research of victim numbers before the Yugoslav wars was conducted by Croatian economist Vladimir Žerjavićand Serbian researcher Bogoljub Kočović. 59,589 victims (again of all nationalities) have been identified by name (in a Yugoslav name list that was made in 1964). Tuđman had estimated, relying on some earlier investigations, that the total number of victims in the Jasenovac camp (Serbs, Jews, Gypsies, Croats, and others) was somewhere between 30,000 and 60,000, thus in a scale similar to the one that is currently prevalent in Croatia. These figures are, however, considerably lower than the generally accepted numbers, which caused ample controversy.Tuđman has also claimed that many victims from the camp have not been actually killed but ,in fact, died because of unhealthy living conditions. Books about Japanese and German camps suggests the similar causes.

Another controversy surrounding The Horrors of War was Tuđman's disagreement with the official figures of Jews killed in concentration camps.Tuđman is said to have estimated that a total of only 900,000 Jews perished in the Holocaust of the Second World War. However, this was reportedly a misinformation that caused some Croats to accuse the "New York Times" of anti-Croat bias and calumny.

In his "Horrors of War", Tuđman had accepted historian Gerald Reitlinger's estimates that the number of Jewish victims during World War II was closer to 4 million as opposed to the most quoted number of 5 to 6 million men, women and children murdered. Another frequently mentioned quotation is the claim that "the establishment of Hitler's new European order could be justified by the need to remove the Jews". Aside from the war statistics issue, Tuđman's book contained views on the Jewish role in history that many readers found simplistic and profoundly biased. Tuđman based his views on the Jewish condition on the memoirs of Croatian Communist Ante Ciliga, one of the top officials, and later a renegade, of the pre-war Komintern, who described his experiences in the Jasenovac concentration camp during a year and a half of his incarceration. Ciliga's experiences, recorded in his book "Sam kroz Europu u ratu (1939–1945)", paint an unfavorable picture of his Jewish inmates' behavior, emphasizing their alleged clannishness, ethnocentrism and apartness. Ciliga claimed that Jews had held a privileged position in Jasenovac and actually, as Tuđman concludes, "held in their hands the inmates management of the camp up to 1944", something that was made possible by the idea that "in its origins Pavelić's party was philo-Semitic". Furthermore, Ciliga theorized that the behavior of the Jews had been determined by the more than 2000-year old tradition of extreme ethnic egoism and unscrupulousness that he claims is expressed in the Old Testament. He summarized, among other things, that "The Jews provoke envy and hatred but actually they are 'the unhappiest nation in the world', always victims of 'their own and others' ambitions', and whoever tries to show that they are themselves their own source of tragedy is ranked among the anti-Semites and the object of hatred by the Jews". However, in another part of the book, Tuđman himself did express the belief that these traits weren't unique to the Jews; while criticizing what he alleges to be aggression and atrocities in the Middle East on the part of Israel, he claimed that they arose "from historical unreasonableness and narrowness in which Jewry certainly is no exception".

The accusations of antisemitism were sometimes disputed due to Tuđman's contacts with representatives of the Jewish World Congress (Tommy Baer) and various Jewish intellectuals, such as (Alain Finkielkraut, Philip J. Cohen). Still, it was invoked by Tuđman's opponents. During his 1990 election campaign, Tuđman notoriously said: "Since many government-paid propagandists insinuate we (HDZ/CDU) are in fact agents of UDBA and KOS (Yugoslav political police), and point out that many of our founding members have Serbian and Jewish wives, I am very happy that my wife is neither Serbian nor Jewish, so they cannot question my credentials with regard to that matter."

In November 1989 Slavko Goldstein,president of Zagreb Jewish community, attacked Tuđman openly, quiting contract Matica Hrvatska which has published that book. Tuđman objected him claiming that Goldstein did not read the entire book but picked a couple of pages and copied others' opinions.

On 22 April 1998 President Tuđman received the credentials of the first Israeli ambassador to Croatia, Natan Meron. In his speech Tuđman said, among other things: 'During the Second World War, within the Quisling regime in Croatia, Holocaust crimes were also committed against members of the Jewish people. The Croatian public then, during the Second World War, and today, including the Croatian government and me personally, have condemned the crimes that the Ustaša committed not only against Jews but also against democratic Croats and even against the members of other nations in the Independent State of Croatia.'

NK Dinamo Zagreb naming dispute

NK Dinamo Zagreb is a football club from Zagreb. In 1991 it was renamed into HAŠK Građanski and in 1993 into NK Croatia Zagreb. Tuđman opposed re-naming it to Dinamo.According to him name Dinamo was too communist. The name Dinamo was chosen by communists of Zagreb inspired by other clubs from communist countries like Dinamo Moscow, Dinamo Kiev, Dinamo Bucureşti, Dinamo Tirana etc. That caused a conflict between Bad Blue Boys and club officials. Bad Blue Boys objected to Tuđman that they used to defend "Croaticity" under the same name in Communist Yugoslavia. Dinamo had a fame for being supported by Croatian nationalists. Tuđman had a vision of NK Croatia as powerful European club. He was open supporter of it and was accused for inappropriate involving into the work of the club.The conflict ended when the club renamed its name back to "Dinamo" couple months after Tuđman's death and HDZ's loss on parliaments elections.

Tuđman as historian

Tuđman did not have a formal academic education as historian. He approaches to the history as marxist scientist and Croatian attorney. He always considered history as means of forming society. For him, history was not just science. It was also a personal devotion,serving to the people as well as the practical and ethical guide.

If Tuđman’s stature as a historian and publicist is to be evaluated, the following facts should be taken into consideration:

• his voluminous, more than 2,000 pages long, Hrvatska u monarhističkoj Jugoslaviji (English: Croatia in Monarchist Yugoslavia), has come to be assigned as reading material concerning this period of Croatian history at many Croatian universities;

• his shorter treatises on national question, Nacionalno pitanje u suvremenoj Europi (English: The National question in contemporary Europe) and Usudbene povijestice (English: History’s fates) are still well-regarded essays on unresolved national and ethnic disputes, self-determination and creation of nation-states in the European milieu;

• his most famous work Bespuća povijesne zbiljnosti (English: Horrors of war), has become regarded, by the majority of Croatian analysts and historians, as a book of historical importance only.

Relation to the Catholic Church

Živko Kustić , Croatian Catholic priest and journalist said that Tuđman's perception of church role in Croatia was quite contradictory to the goals of Pope John Paul II.Moreover, Kustić expressed doubt that Tuđman had ever been truly religious except when he was very young. Tuđman considered the Catholic religion to be important for modern Croatian nation. When he was taking the oath in 1992 he added sentence "Tako mi Bog pomogao!" (English: So helped me the God ) which was not in the official text. In the 1997 he officially included that sentence in the oath.

Legacy

Mr. President, like all the great people during life you will not wait enough for the proper interpretation of your merits for the nation, it will be done only by future generations, but believe me it will be done. You'll be a great man of Croatian history, but not during your life, but when ratings will be made with cool heads.

— 50px, in Henry Kissinger, , 50px

File:Tuđman-statue, Široki Brig04667.jpg

Statue of Franjo Tuđman in Široki Brig

Tuđman's grave at the Mirogoj cemetery (in the background)

The transition to a democratic state has proven slower and more problematic in Croatia than in neighbouring CEEC candidates for EU accession. Partly due to the years of war and ethnic cleansing, and the lack of any solid experience of democracy before the war, and partly due to the ruling regime of Franjo Tuđman, and his HDZ.

President Tuđman, who came to power in 1990 and presented himself as the ‘hero of national resistance to Belgrade’s hegemony’, no longer enjoyed the unanimous support of the Croatian public by the end of the millennium. Signs of discontent became increasingly obvious to everyone, particularly in connection with the social problems arising from an unemployment rate variously estimated at between 18 and 20%.

Croatian progress towards democracy has been marked by many failures. According to reports by the OSCE and the Helsinki International Federation for Human rights, respect for human rights in Croatia fell far short of European standards during his rule. These reports criticise the arrangements for the return of persons displaced during the war, the reform of the electoral law and the situation with regard to the independence of the press, freedom of association, freedom of information and co-operation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

The two organisations found that arrangements for the return of refugees discriminated against Croatian Serbs had been obliged to flee the country during the war.The annual report of the Helsinki International Federation for Human Rights reported cases of harassment and telephone bugging of journalists and pressure being brought on the independent media (e.g. the attempt to close down Radio 101).

President Tuđman’s popularity declined further in the course of 1999 in the wake of revelations concerning corruption and privatisation operations which allegedly had benefited the ruling party. Given the authoritarian and corrupt nature of the ruling clique and its potentially destabilising impact on the region, analysts predicted that there would be a change in the ruling coalition immediately after the legislative elections.

Despite the controversy, Tuđman is credited with creating the basis for an independent Croatia, and helping the country move away from communism and towards democracy. He is sometimes given the title "father of the country" for his role the country's independence. His legacy is still strong in many parts of Croatia as well as in parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina with Croatian majorities; there are schools, squares and streets in some cities named after him, and statues have been erected. Plans to create a square in Zagreb after the late president, proposed by his family and supporters, encountered discontent among the citizens. Their attempt of changing the Roosevelt or Marshal Tito Square failed, and a large square near the Ilica Street in Črnomerec, Zagreb was named after him in December 2006.

See also: List of places named after Franjo Tuđman

Family

• Wife Ankica Tuđman - head of the Za djecu Hrvatske (For the children of Croatia) humanitarian fund

• Son Miroslav Tuđman - secret service chief during his father's presidency, independent right-wing candidate for the 2010 election.

• Son Stjepan Tuđman

• Daughter Nevenka Tuđman - found guilty of corruption but never imprisoned because too many years had passed from the time of the crime which was during her father's presidency.

• Grandson Dejan Košutić (son of Nevenka)- in the beginning of Franjo Tuđman's presidency he was the owner of a company that imported drinks; later Dejan Košutić built a private shooting range "Domagojevi strijelci". Afterwards, he was a part-owner of the Kaptol bank - the bank was liquidated because of the negative media campaign. In 2002 he opened a business for package delivery in Serbia, in 2005 he started an information security consulting company in Croatia, and in 2008 he founded the security portal.

• Grandson Siniša Košutić (son of Nevenka) - race car driver

• Grandson Franjo Tuđman - illegitimate son of Stjepan Tuđman.

Honours and decorations

Croatian:

Awarded by the Parliament of Croatia in 1995

• Grand Order of King Tomislav
• Grand Order of King Petar Krešimir IV
• Order of Duke Domagoj
• Order of Ante Starčević
• Order of Stjepan Radić
• Order of Danica Hrvatska with the face of Ruđer Bošković
• Order of the Croatian Trefoil
• Commemorative Medal of the Homeland War
• Commemorative Medal of the Homeland's Gratitude

Commemorative medals for the military campaigns in 1995:

• Medal for Participation in Operation "Flash"
• Medal for Participation in Operation "Summer '95"
• Medal for Participation in Operation "Storm"
• Medal for Exceptional Undertakings in Maintaining the Constitutional and Legal Order of the Republic of Croatia and Protecting Citizens' Lives and Property

International:

• Knight Grand Cross of the Military Order of Italy by Francesco Cossiga in 1992
• Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of Chile by Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle in 1994
• Collar of the Order of the Liberator San Martin by Carlos Menem in 1994
• Medal of Zhukov by Boris Yeltsin in 1996
• Order of the Great Cross of Hellenic Republic by Konstantinos Stephanopoulos in 1998
• State Order of the Republic of Turkey by Suleyman Demirel in 1999

References

• Sadkovich, James J. (2010). "Tuđman, first political biography". Večernji posebni proizvodi d.o.o. , Zagreb. ISBN 978-953-7313-72-2.
• Hudelist, Darko (2004). " Tuđman-biografija " Template:Hr icon.Zagreb. Profil. ISBN 953-12-0038-6.

External links

• Website in a tribute of Franjo Tuđman Template:Hr icon