Arrest of Ante Gotovina served as a catalyst for the public
spectacle that had been widely expected, only not so soon - the very first
burning of European Union flag in Croatia.
The performance artists belonged to the group of Zadar high
school students protesting Gotovina's arrest in Zadar. During their
demonstrations they also stoned city administration and local SDP offices. The
nearby Zadar area also experienced two nights of tires and garbage dump
torching, as well as logs being thrown to the roads, which had resulted in
number of traffic accidents.
The rest of Croatia is reacting to this news with relative
calm. Gospić (Gospic) and Osijek saw two more orderly public protests with
couple hundreds of participants. Another protest in Zadar brought couple of
thousands participants today.
All this looks like a storm in teacup compared with the
events following indictment of Croatian Army general Mirko Norac four years
ago. This impression is most likely to be even more obvious after tomorrow's
great demonstration in Split.
Four years ago Norac's indictment brought some 150,000 men
to what would later be remembered as the greatest public protest in history of
Croatia. Tomorrow's organisers are going to be very happy if they gather only
tenth of that number.
One of the participants is definitely not going to be Ivo
Sanader who, four years ago appeared on Riva and attacked Ivica Račan (Ivica
Racan) and his left-centre government for allowing the mere thought of Croatian
Army officers being arrested and extradited to Hague.
Sanader can also rely on otherwise staunchly pro-Gotovina
Church. Their representatives called for calm.
The most surprising endorsement of Sanader came from Marko
Perković "Thompson" (Marko Perkovic "Thompson"), Croatian musician whose "Jasenovac i
Gradiška Stara" (Jasenovac i Gradiska Stara) fame was preceded by songs
praising Ante Gotovina and his flight and accusing former government of
betraying Croatia with its co-operation with ICTY. In his statement
"Thompson" said that he would not sing at tomorrow's rally and he
also supported government.
Most mainstream observers, after digesting initial shock,
are trying to play down the story. Some point to Serbia and try to portray its
failure to apprehend Radovan Karadžić (Radovan Karadzic) and Ratko Mladić
(Ratko Mladic) as the proof of Croatian police and intelligence services'
efficiency and inherent superiority to its Serbian peers. Others are looking
forward to severe economic, diplomatic and any other nasty consequences of
Serbia's failure to fulfil its Hague obligations - a fate Croatia was, in their
mind, very wise to evade.
Of course, if Karadžić and Mladić are arrested in near
future, Sanader's spin doctors have already prepared a campaign designed to
portray Gotovina as an innocent man who could never be put in the same basket
with those two and his legal troubles as mere "technicality" that
could be solved through Sanader's brilliant diplomacy. Slobodna Dalmacija
already published an article about Carla del Ponte's letter that had allegedly
promised Gotovina's release and trial in Croatia as an exchange for Croatian
government's full co-operation in his arrest.
In the meantime, first polls indicate that some 60 % of all
Croatians see Gotovina's arrest as "bad news". Some 43 % believe that
he will be acquitted in Hague, while 43 % believe that he will be pronounced
guilty. Other, more sinister, measurement of popular sentiment could be found
on Croatian walls, recently "decorated" with chauvinistic graffiti.
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