VIEWPOINT FROM LONDON

STEREOTYPES CAN LET YOU DOWN

by Brian Gallagher

The Croatian Herald, Australia No. 1000 - 30.01.04

 

Recently, it transpired that the HDZ victory in Croatia had a helping hand from spin doctors from Ireland's governing party Fianna Fail. This led to an angry response from Sinn Fein, the political wing of the Irish Republican Army terrorist group who accused Fianna Fail of helping a party guilty of war crimes. This may puzzle some in Croatia who may be under the misapprehension that the IRA are somehow sympathetic to the Croatian cause because of a perceived stereotype of Catholic IRA fighting oppressive pro-Serb Britain. In reality, Sinn Fein was sympathetic to the former Serb dominated Yugoslavia. This demonstrates that many Croats must adopt more sophisticated thinking to establish who their friends and foes are.

The UK Sunday Times of 21 December ran a story stating that Croatia's HDZ hired a Irish consultancy group headed by PJ Mara, a former director of elections for Fianna Fail to help HDZ reform itself and win the elections. Mara hired other Fianna Fail figures such as former general secretary Martin Mackin and Jackie Gallagher - former adviser to Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern. The HDZ campaign featured images of Bertie Ahern. The article was distinctly unsympathetic to Croatia, making unsubstantiated claims that HDZ had "forcibly expelled" Serbs from Croatia.

Aengus O'Snodaigh, a Sinn Fein MP, attacked Irish Prime Minister Ahern. "Ahern has to ask himself whether it is right that his image as an incoming EU president was used by a foreign party that has harboured war criminals, just because his buddies are helping them out," O'Snodaigh said.

This is a bit much coming from Sinn Fein. The IRA are experts in atrocity; they murdered and tortured civilians, police, soldiers, protestants and catholics over the years. At least some in Fianna Fail clearly have a greater understanding of Croatia.

It is worth pausing to remember that when people in the EU - especially the UK - attack "HDZ" and "Franjo Tudjman" they are actually using code to attack Croatia itself. This makes them look "fair" rather than simply anti-Croat which in reality is usually the case. After all, if these people were really concerned about matters such as human rights in Croatia they would be demanding the arrest of all those involved in the slaughter of up to 20,000 Croats during the war. Instead, all they speak of is Serb rights. Unfortunately, the former government of Ivica Racan never understood this and appeared to seriously believe such criticism really was about the HDZ. This was never the case as shown by Britain's hostile attitude towards Racan's efforts to get Croatia into the EU.

This code can equally be applied to Sinn Fein. Sinn Fein has an extreme left wing background and indeed draws sympathy from left wing characters in the UK who also sympathised with the Serbs during the war, such as former MP Tony Benn.

This may seem rather confusing but other pro-Serb sympathisers in the UK have often tried to link the IRA with Croats. The commentator Richard West did so in his biography of Tito. The Yugoslav state also appeared to play on this by ostensibly backing the UK in Northern Ireland. Yugoslavia always went to great pains to equate Croats with terrorism.

That said, Croats have not been helped by recent allegations of Croat arms smuggling to the Real IRA terrorist splinter group. Fortunately, this has been effectively counter-balanced by Croat officials cracking down on such activities - which were probably due more to organised crime than terrorist sympathies. Pre-World War 2, Sinn Fein and the Ustasha were also compared by commentators.

But it may come as a great surprise to some Croats - and perhaps to some Serbs and their friends - that Sinn Fein was sympathetic to the Yugoslav state and found it to be a source of inspiration. Articles in Irish magazine The Blanket - which covers Irish Republican affairs - quote Sinn Fein's Republican News on the party's policies in the 1970's, when IRA terrorism was at it's height. They based economic policies on Yugoslavia, amongst other states, and even considered it a model for a united Ireland. Furthermore, Tito's death elicited a fulsome tribute from the then Sinn Fein President.

Clearly the rights of Croats in Serb dominated Yugoslavia was not something Sinn Fein cared about, and from O'Snodaigh's remarks they remain none too sympathetic today. Given Sinn Fein's background in the international left - never a friend of Croatia - none of this should be too surprising.

It's also worth pointing out that Margaret Thatcher, who championed Croatia's cause on the world stage was an implacable foe of the IRA. The IRA narrowly failed to assassinate her in the Brighton bomb in 1984. Suppose they had succeeded? Croatia would not have benefited from her powerful voice.

The point here is that Croats need to understand that things are not always what they seem. Just because something is identified as Catholic does not mean it's pro-Croat. Catholic France is notoriously pro-Serb and has little time for Croatia. Another example is in Northern Ireland. As author Brendan Simms has pointed out, Nationalist (Catholic) politicians such as John Hume kept silent on the wars in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. By contrast, Unionist (Protestant) David Trimble criticized Milosevic.

Croats need to assess matters as how they are, rather than on stereotypes that may not be grounded in reality. Many people do view things on nationalist or religious grounds; but some do on the basis of ideology, and Croats should understand this when seeking support in the world.

 

© Brian Gallagher

My 'Viewpoint from London' column appears fortnightly in the Australian 'Croatian Herald' and thereafter at www.croatiafocus.com