May is traditionally exciting for Croats – wherever they are – to the point of drama. Well, so, here it is, this time when the battle for Bleiburg is (was) fought in Sarajevo, Banja Luka and Zagreb. However, it should be said that the (first) unsuspecting BiH Minister of Security Nebojša Vukanović started it, reacting to the marking of the 80^th anniversary of the Bleiburg tragedy and the Stations of the Cross in Radimlja near Stolac, organized by the Croatian Democratic Union of BiH and the Croatian National Assembly of BiH.

Vlado's grandson (and) almost-minister

This (chronic) noisemaker from Trebinje called this year's commemoration of the victims of the frenzied partisan-communist bloody reprisals - shameful. Of course, this almost-minister knows that this place in Herzegovina is a symbol of the suffering of Croats. In the Trebinje-Mrkan diocese, for example, 4 500 people are registered, by name and surname, who were killed or disappeared in World War II - the Stolac parish alone has 690 victims. Just as he knows that every year in May, the Croats of Herzegovina remember one of the greatest tragedies of the Croatian people in history.

However, this year he remembered how his grandfather Vlado, with the help of the Ustashas, ended up in the Ržana jama near Trebinje for two, actually related, reasons. First, to accuse the Radmilja pilgrim, Dragan Čović, of Ustašophilia, and then to call out Milorad Dodik for remaining silent about the “Radimlja case” under the direction of the HDZ leader. You see, according to the leader of the For Justice and Order party, this tandem is an obstacle to Trebinje (finally) giving the Minister of Security. For which Vlado’s grandson, a geography and history teacher, is – undoubtedly! – qualified.

As a result, the Croat Club in the House of Peoples of the federal Parliament of Bosnia and Herzegovina hastily told him that he could forget about the ministerial position. Although they had – allegedly – promised him it in windy Kupres when he was the first Croat there to meet with the ambitious and now impatient Serbian opposition. After Vukanović suddenly remembered Ržana Jama, the possibility of Čović coming to Kupreško Polje with a few (Serbian) guys no longer really exists.

The ancient story about “Grandpa Vlado” takes us back a few years. At the end of May 2020, the heretic Baja, in an interview with the Belgrade-based Politika, also absolved the Bleiburg tragedy. "Here's my opinion on it, they should have all been killed in Bleiburg. And those who had been walking for years, he should have found and killed", Mile blurted out, chronically subtle, mentioning the suffering of his village of Mrčevci. In fact, there is no Serb whose village was not ravaged by the Ustashas or whose grandfather was not at least killed. It is therefore a real miracle that there are any Serbs alive at all. Today!

The Role of Waitresses in (Serbian) Suffering

Aleksandar Vučić also had a grandfather – Anđelko. And he was, of course, killed by – the Ustashas. This was claimed by, not Anđelko but Aleksandar, a few years ago in the midst of the frenzied Serbian campaign – led by the “great patriarch” – against the canonization of Blessed Alojzije Stepinac.

However, in his research on the life of the Blessed, Monsignor Juraj Batelja established that none of Vučić’s family from Čipuljići near Bugojno were victims of Ustasha terror. A legend from that village, which is still alive, says that Anđelko did indeed pay with his head. But, according to one version, because of a debt, and according to another, someone beat him up in front of a Banja Luka pub because of – a waitress. Now, it would be worth checking whether Vukanović’s grandfather Vlado was fond of – waitresses… Or at least of borrowing money.

Whatever the case, after Mile of Laktaši published his "final solution", there were no letters or postcards from the HNS/HDZ. And, here, for the grandson of Vlado's unfortunate grandfather, wood and stones. Admittedly, Dodik is silent this year regarding Bleiburg. Such are the circumstances (for him)... It is not bad to remind us of how Zagreb remained silent about this outburst of hatred from the heretical leader. In fact, three or four years later, the Croatian president invited him to the countryside, albeit for one day, to sunny Hvar. So, this Tuesday, SNSD's Srđan Mazalica claims that Zoran Milanović is a greater Serb than the entire opposition there, with Vukanović at the head!

It is easiest - I know! – to blame the Serbs. However, we should not forget that Croats, parliamentarians, moreover, used to bark at Bleiburg like a dog at the full moon. Who doesn't remember Nenad Stazić, who expressed his deep disappointment with the Partisans on his Facebook?

Sloppiness...

"It seems that in May '45 the job was not done thoroughly. What sloppiness of the winners!", this SDP member returned to history in May 2018, and then, seeing the extent to which he had swayed the Croatian public, he erased this mess of his. Too late as our Serb brothers would say... However, remembering Stazić, who also had, by his own admission, a Partisan grandfather, we see how he was actually the inspiration for Dodik to publish his "final solution" two years later.

And, we should also remember Krešo Beljak, who, in indirect correspondence with (our...) Mile in May 2020, protested that HRT was directly broadcasting the Holy Mass for the victims of Bleiburg. And with his editorial ambitions, he, interestingly enough, like Vukanović, a geography teacher, also showed regret for the missed opportunity. "The fascists in the former Yugoslavia, unfortunately, fled Udba", the HSS leader said sadly. And after they tried to educate him that Tito's party (secret) police from 1945 to 1990 were responsible for more than 100 assassinations outside Yugoslavia, the devil would not let Beljak rest, so he continued: "More than 100? Obviously not enough."

Many questioned Beljak's mental health at the time, but he still persists, with, to be honest, not much support from voters, on the Croatian political scene - where not much has changed regarding the Bleiburg tragedy. This week's first day of parliamentary debate was marked by a fierce clash between Josip Jurčević and Milorad Pupovac. The latter, namely, is traditionally faithful to the old Serbian matrix according to which the Ustashe are guilty of prolonging the war and also because, retreating before the Partisans, they took with them some of the civilians who then perished. Logically, according to Pupovac.

Killing the killed

In replying to him, Jurčević sticks to the facts. In the territory of the former Yugoslavia, 1 759 mass execution sites and graves were recorded, and according to British sources, which this Croatian historian refers to, 500 000 civilians and 200 000 NDH soldiers participated in the retreat towards Austria, most of whom were captured and executed without trial. Or, as Broz boasted, "the hand of justice, the avenging hand of our people, reached the vast majority".

It is astonishing that even 80 years after (that) hand of Tito's (bloody) avengers arrived and killed tens of thousands of Croats along the Way of the Cross, anyone who remembers can insult the victims of perhaps the greatest tragedy of the Croatian people in history. Once: Stazić, Dodik, Beljak, the so-called Sarajevo anti-fascists, and in fact at the last moment the thwarted stormers of the Sarajevo Cathedral where (only) prayers were made for the repose of the souls of those whose graves are not even known... today Vukanović, Pupovac... are killing the murdered once again! Once upon a time, it was not allowed to talk about Bleiburg, and today anyone can do whatever they want. (Some) leaden times again!

Is there an end?!