1 May 2005. Thanks to "A. Napadac."

Croatian nationalists ‘furious’ with Pukanic

The World’s media is saturated with misinformation regarding Croatian General Ante Gotovina since his disappearance in July 2001.  This article reveals the role of Ivo Pukanic and his Croatian weekly Nacional. The fact is, whilst pointing the finger of blame at others, the majority of lies and false allegations against Gotovina originate from himself and his own publication ­ and nationalists are furious.

It is a world where Cut-and-paste ‘sensationals’ rule the day.  Rivals and political opponents are liberally denounced as enemy spies, MI6, Serbian or ex-Yugoslav agents, whilst Nationalists, such as Ante Gotovina, who fought for Croatian independence, are branded ‘war criminals’ or ‘gangsters’.  When the rare exposé has some foundation in fact, no matter how scant, it is celebrated, whilst the overwhelming numbers of discredited articles are forgotten and libel cases quietly hushed up out of court.

In the fierce media war between the two Croatian rivals, Nacional and Globus, fact is thin on the ground whilst fiction is in abundance. The standard editorial policy of Globus is, and has been consistently, to falsely portray Gotovina and his supporters as a criminal network. It frequently publishes sensational articles, along with glossy photographs of Gotovina’s associates or fellow soldiers, whom it accuses of drug dealing and arms fixing, usually based on the supposed evidence of  ‘anonymous’ or bribed sources. Nacional and Globus then lock horns and wrestle as each compete for the prize of most fabricated article. The fact that the vast majority of these stories are wholly unsubstantiated escapes both of them.

On the surface, Nacional appears sympathetic to Gotovina. Critical of the ICTY, its major shareholder Ivo Pukanic is the only journalist to have supposedly interviewed the general since his disappearance and claims to be close to his circle. He even exposed and published the names and details of MI6 agents searching for the war crimes suspect and was denied a visa to the UK. Pukanic accuses his archenemy Globus of initiating the criminal allegations against
Gotovina, considered a hero by many Croatians, and purports to defend him.

Pukanic’s memory, however, must either be a little short, or otherwise he and his Nacional minions have undergone a most miraculous conversion. As when one digs a little deeper one finds a very different story than the one Pukanic likes to spin.

Nacional was politically motivated with an anti-nationalist agenda from its inception. According to Zoran Daskalović, of aimpress, it was ‘started by a group of journalists who abandoned Globus with the wish to create a newspaper critical of Tudjman’s regime.’ Jerry Blaskovitch author of Anatomy of deceit stated: ‘Its apparent only functions were to uncover and expose real or imagined shenanigans of the HDZ’ and was the ‘apple of the State department’s eye.’ This was backed up by the BHHRG who pointed out that Nacional and Belgrade’s Nedeljni Telegraf followed the Anglo-American line throughout the 1990’s and cautioned their exposés be ‘treated with a pinch of
salt.’

The truth is, Croatian nationalists, particularly Gotovina supporters, are deeply sceptical about Pukanic. Many consider him an opportunist exploiting the Gotovina case for commercial motives. They have good reason.

Commercial Exploiter

Immediately preceding Gotovina’s indictment, Pukanic’s financial situation was dire. Nacional’s circulations were lower than the late 1990’s when the sales of all political weeklies in Croatia plummeted following the launch of Jutarnji list. At the end of 2000 in an act of desperation Pukanic borrowed a loan from the Hypo bank and launched the poorly edited daily Republika. Critics immediately accused the bank of influencing editorial policy and complaints of excessive advertising soon flooded in. Readers couldn’t distinguish between news articles and adverts. It shut
down after just six months with a reported loss of DM 600,000 per month.

On 9/05/2001, Zagreb’s Foreign Press Bureau reported that Republika: ‘Promised to be a respectable political newspaper. However, its profile quickly swung this paper close to being considered a tabloid. Namely, its CEO, Ivo Pukanic, is known to advocate publishing unconfirmed news, which frequently led to unfounded accusations and even litigation. Pukanic's reason for closing down the newspaper was its low readership, i.e. inadequate sales.’

Pukanic, with a previous prison sentence for threatening behaviour and fined by courts for insulting plaintiffs suing for libel against Nacional, was on the rocks and looking for a way out. Less than eight weeks after the failed launch of his new paper, Gotovina disappeared and Pukanic thought literally ‘cash.’ If only he could get that exclusive interview.
Whether the event actually took place or not, as some who know Gotovina doubt, the published ‘exclusive’ proved to be profitable for Pukanic and make no mistake, he’s been milking it in ever since.

False friendship

Pukanic revels in name-dropping boasting friendship with the high and mighty. He claims to be close to Gotovina and uses this to add weight to his articles and thus increase sales. However, here in his own words is the extent of Pukanic’s ‘great relationship’ with Gotovina:

‘Before the meeting (alleged interview,) I had seen Gotovina only twice in real life, once at the barbers at the former “Intercontinental” when we never spoke, and once at “Atlanta” restaurant, when he saved my friends from an incident involving a drunk General that was in his company. After he calmed the drunk General down in the party where most of the conversation was led by Korade, Gotovina came to our table and apologized to everyone because of his
colleague’s behavior. That was in the summer of 1999.’

In the same article, published in Nacional, 16/09/2003, Pukanic also remarks it took him ‘one year of sending signals and messages using every possible channel I suspected could lead to him,’ which one can believe knowing Pukanic’s desperate situation, but also makes transparent they had no relationship whatsoever.

Pukanic framed Gotovina

In fact, as Pukanic’s empire first began to crumble, not only was his own editorial policy hostile to Gotovina; Pukanic himself was the very first to maliciously attack him with falsified accusations of criminality. In a series of scathing articles between 1999 and 2001, Nacional accused Gotovina of criminality and cowardice, plotting a military coup
against the President and perjury concerning the Blaskic case.

Pukanic recently took steps to remove these articles as well as others from public view as they conflicted with his new self-image as Gotovina’s champion in the eyes of the Croatian public. The author of this article however, succeeded in locating copies from sympathisers.  One outraged Gotovina supporter from the general’s hometown Pakostane said, ‘They show Pukanic as a two-faced opportunistic parasite.’

In ‘Right-wing current of HDZ out to destroy Miljavac’ co-signed by Pukanic (Nacional Issue 204, 13/10/1999) Gotovina’s ‘friend’ writes about him:

‘The current Chief of Staff, Davor Domazet Loso would be replaced by Ante Gotovina who is now Head Inspector for the Military and never lets up an opportunity to spite the Defense Ministry. An undeniable fact is that Gotovina has been an inseparable follower of Markica Rebic and Ljubo Cesic Rojs in the last few weeks on virtually daily cafe parties in Zagreb’s “Hotel intercontinental”. In this way he is “related” to the late Susak, and Gotovina is more the political prey of the Rebic - Cesic axis, rather than a person from their circle of lobby interests. As a skilled soldier and a former member of the French Foreign Legion, Gotovina did not show any faction or party affinities until Markica Rebic, who calls himself the Great Combine of High Politics, did not convince him that he was under suspicion in The Hague for committing war crimes in operation “Storm”. Terrified by the perspective of his own trial in the Hague, Gotovina
began to lean toward the faction of military officials who guaranteed the breaking off of relations with the ICTY, even under the price of sanctions.

In this context, the motives are clear and outlined with manipulations and intimidations to the Hague Tribunal: without the current Head Inspector of the Military with the authority of combat command from the field, the military bureaucratic structure of Susak’s followers cannot count on any support among the professional brigades of the Croatian Military who are currently all loyal to Minister Miljavac. In this way, Gotovina as a “coup” ally could bridge the ever-deepening “rank” gap between the instant-generals in the Defense Ministry and the poorly paid professionals in the staff headquarters.’

One year later, in ‘Generals Threaten Mesic Further’  (Issue 255, 5/10/2000) Nacional published the following. Described as ‘Susak’s Pet,’ and mocking the Homeland War veterans, Gotovina’s named as the chief instigator of Pukanic’s alleged coup, accused of cowardice, and disrespectful to his superiors:

“Ante Gotovina has been the leader of the implemented part of the action. After the death of Defense Minister Gojko Susak, Gotovina became the central figure for his political and ideological followers from Zagreb to Mostar. For years, he has been in fear of tales that he would be extradited to The Hague, which stem back to 1997 and David Rivkin, the legal representatives for Tudjman’s “national policies” in The Hague. As a result, Gotovina became one of the
fieriest supporters for complete Croatian isolation and the cutting off of all cooperation between the ICTY and Croatia. This even at the expense of international sanctions and the Albanization of Croatia. He frequently emphasized the “national pride of Serbia” as a model. And there is the truth that HDZ was firstly playing with Gotovina’s fate, in
“auctioning off the Hague defendants”. The difference is only in that Susak’s pet firmly believed that HDZ would rather gamble with international loans than with his fate.

After the January elections, Gotovina was not prepared to admit to himself that he had been motivated by fear of the ICTY. He rationalized this fear of the new government and the new political circumstances in the country with a new argument: sitting with his counterparts in the ‘Kaltenberg’ Pub on Jarun, where they sat up nights discussing the
“jeopardized dignity of the Patriotic War” and its heroes, Gotovina teased Mesic for his leisurely attitude and his lack of any form of authority. He would convince those closest to him that such a Supreme Commander was not worthy enough for the Croatian Army.”

Clearly attempting to portray Gotovina as a violent thug and liar, Nacional’s article continues:

“According to the legend, Gotovina became the adored commander because he had beaten several of his colleagues, kicking them when they were down.”

“In any case, Gotovina first denied his colleagues of the truth concerning Nacional’s article about the preparations of the generals’ letter.”

There was indeed discontent, particularly by former combatants who perceived a falsification of the history of the Homeland War and the neglection of war veterans’ affairs resulting in mass-demonstrations.  Culminating in a letter signed by leading generals, including Gotovina, calling on the government and media to cease calling Croatia’s defensive war against the Serbian aggressors a matter or national shame, Pukanic’s alleged coup never was.
Even the President himself, Stipe Mesic, dismissed the allegations as ‘ridiculous.’ Based on his trademark ‘anonymous sources,’ it was in the end, like the allegations of thuggery and falsehood, later picked up by the international media, simply a Pukanic invention.

Pukanic and Operation ‘Cash’

Another of Pukanic’s interesting name-drops is that of ex-police chief Ranko Ostojic. In an article entitled ‘I was at lunch with Lucin and Ostojic,’ Slobodna Dalmacija, 18/09/2003, (1) Pukanic, when asked if he was to be questioned by the police about his alleged Gotovina interview was quoted:

‘No one has specifically contacted me. However, on Tuesday I was at lunch with the minister Sime Lucin and his deputy Ranko Ostojic in the restaurant Medvednica in Zagreb. We discussed the situation regarding general Ante Gotovina and I told them what they were interested in. But that was an unofficial meeting because I'm in especially friendly relations
with both of them. I believe the possibility of being invited for interrogation by the Croatian police has been eliminated by this.’

What’s most fascinating about his friendship with Lucin and Ostojic, which has more credence than his fake sympathy for Gotovina, is that it is now known that in February 2003, seven months prior to Pukanic’s lunch, the two police chiefs were visited by senior MI6 officials in Zagreb and launched the secret operation code-named ‘Cash.’ As Pukanic ‘told them what they were interested in’ Ostojic was head of a task force of seven specially selected police officers
operating in secrecy and liasing with the MI6 agent at the British embassy in Zagreb to catch Gotovina.  (2)

On the 13/1/2005 UPI Intelligence Watch cited a previous article in Feral Tribune, issue no.967, which claimed Ostojic, six journalists, and several British diplomats supplied misleading information to the Croatian public that Gotovina was in Croatia. (3) With suspicions abound of Pukanic’s scheme to capitalize on Gotovina, on 11/06/2003 Novi list (4) confronted him and enquired if the Croatian police had tried to tempt him with the 350,000 Kuna reward for information leading to the general’s arrest. Pukanic, with typical arrogance, scoffed the accusations
stating: ‘he was now wealthy enough to offer that money to the police instead of asking it from them.’

A. Napadac

(1) http://arhiv.slobodnadalmacija.hr/20030918/novosti01.asp

(2) http://www.guardian.co.uk/eu/story/0,7369,1440429,00.html

(3) http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20050113-041835-4514r.htm

(4) http://213.191.154.38/print.aspx?clanak=979

For anyone interested in further details on Ivo Pukanic’s ‘journalism’ see: ‘New Lies From Nacional's Research Workshop’, by Zdenko Mance, Novi List, Rijeka, Croatia, 8/05/2002

http://www.ex-yupress.com/novi/novilist11.html