2006-12-06

International cooperation

Did the "Zemun clan" plan to assassinate former Croatian PM Ivica Račan as a way of returning the favor of assistance from Croatian criminal groups in the assassination of Serbian PM Zoran Đinđić? Novi list reports that they did, and Račan says that he received similar information.

5 comments:

observer said...

This is something that was dangerously close to occuring after Djindjic's assassination and something that greatly concerned Racan. Apparently, the Zemun clan needs political chaos in the region to survive.

Jutarnji also had an interesting article on this last week:

http://www.jutarnji.hr/clanak/art-2006,11,27,zemunski_klan,52212.jl

Bg anon said...

I'm not entirely convinced although I do remember Racan's non show at Djindjic's funeral - which incidently I attended (despite numerous death threats :))

There is a definite link between Zemun and the war criminal gang in neighbouring Croatia but sometimes I wonder if stories like this arent more to do with Croatia's current internal situation - ie trying to show Petrac, Gotovina, Glavas and all in a negative light as possible.

Of course I dont have time for any of the trio but I do wonder if its a case of the liberals trying to bash the right in the Croatian context.

bytycci said...

who says they can't cooperate? :)

Eric Gordy said...

I think there is some bashing going on, also an argument that the criminals are pretty much the same no matter what side of the border. This kind of thing goes together well with stories like the friendship between Sloba and Tuta in Scheveningen, for example. Though I doubt very much that Racan threatened the far right folks in Croatia as much as Djindjic did in Serbia.

observer said...

Good point about Racan not having been as much of a threat to the far right in Croatia as Djindjic was in Serbia, Racan actually did more to obstruct cooperation with the ICTY (Bobetko, Gotovina) than his HDZ successor and Vladimir Seks even claimed that during the Bobetko crisis, Racan became 'a leader of the Right,' thus the threats he received at the time (from people like Pavlovic of HVIDRA who wanted Racan to 'eat breakfast' with the late Djindjic) may seem out of place, but the rhetoric of the HDZ at that time was quite vicious as well and people like Vesna Pusic claimed to fear some sort of coup against the government - whether this fear was rational or not, who knows - but given the highly charged rhetoric being used Racan did fear for his safety.

Also, there is a certain element of domestic politics in this, exposing the underworld activities of Petrac and others helps turn the public opinion against them, but the right also (HSP for example) uses stories like this and the recent arrests in Zadar to demand Croatia make travel more difficult for Serbian passport holders.