12/05/2006
stampa
invia
stampainvia
Football is helping to finance the defence of Gotovina and other Croatians accused of war crimes
There’s a football match being played this Saturday at the Maksimir stadium in
Zagabria where the gate receipts are going to charity. However, the proceeds from
the match between Dynamo Zagabria and Hadjuk Split aren’t going to a children’s
association or towards the fight against some illness but to pay for the legal
costs of a dozen or so Croatian generals accused of war crimes by the International
Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. One of the accused is Ante Gotovina, who was
captured last December in the Canary Islands and is considered by many people
in Croatia to be a national hero.
Important Match. “Let’s hope the stadium is full”, the Dynamo team manager, Zdravko Mamic, was
quoted as saying, and if it is it will mean that 40,000 people will have contributed
around €150,000 to the cause. In all likelihood the ground will be full since
the match is the penultimate of this year’s championship and is between the two
teams that in recent years have been the strongest in the league. In fact Dynamo
has just won the championship, which in the last years was won by Hajduk, and
the team wants to celebrate in front of its own fans.
National heroes. The episode is the latest demonstration of how Croatian society has closed ranks
around Gotovina and the other soldiers accused by the Hague. The European Union
declared that their capture was a condition for Croatia entering the EU in the
near future, but not even this incentive changed public opinion in Croatia. In
December 70,000 people took to the streets in Zagabria to protest after Gotovina
was captured and another 100,000 followed suit in Split, while a survey revealed
that 60% of Croatians don’t believe that Gotovina is responsible for the war crimes
he’s accused of and 53% think that his arrest is negative for Croatia.
Football and politics in the Balkans. The plan to give the proceeds of the Dynamo v Hajduk game to the alleged Croatian
war criminals once again demonstrates the links between sport and nationalism
in the former Yugoslavia. The former Milan player Zvonimir Boban, for example,
has never denied his support for Franjo Tudjman, the Croatian president who was
also charged by the Hague, while the star of Croatian tennis, Goran Ivanisevic,
publicly defended Gotovina after his arrest. Things in Serbia are little different
where Sinisa Mihajlovic, the professional footballer, was a great friend and admirer
of Arkan, the Serbian leader of the paramilitary Tigers who was also accused of
crimes against humanity in Bosnia and Kosova, before being assassinated by a sniper.
Arkan, who began his militancy among the hooligan fringe of Red Star Belgrade
supporters, consolidated his nationalist base by becoming president of Obilic
football club.
Important Match. “Let’s hope the stadium is full”, the Dynamo team manager, Zdravko Mamic, was
quoted as saying, and if it is it will mean that 40,000 people will have contributed
around €150,000 to the cause. In all likelihood the ground will be full since
the match is the penultimate of this year’s championship and is between the two
teams that in recent years have been the strongest in the league. In fact Dynamo
has just won the championship, which in the last years was won by Hajduk, and
the team wants to celebrate in front of its own fans. National heroes. The episode is the latest demonstration of how Croatian society has closed ranks
around Gotovina and the other soldiers accused by the Hague. The European Union
declared that their capture was a condition for Croatia entering the EU in the
near future, but not even this incentive changed public opinion in Croatia. In
December 70,000 people took to the streets in Zagabria to protest after Gotovina
was captured and another 100,000 followed suit in Split, while a survey revealed
that 60% of Croatians don’t believe that Gotovina is responsible for the war crimes
he’s accused of and 53% think that his arrest is negative for Croatia. The accusations. The general’s trial is taking place at the moment and Gotovina has claimed that
he is innocent, suggesting that the trial could go on for a long time in much
the same way as that of Slobodan Milosevic, who died in March before his trial
finished. Gotovina, who was in charge of Croatian troops in Krajina, in eastern
Croatia, on the Serbian border, during the final phases of the war between Zagabria
and Belgrade, is accused of crimes against humanity involving 150-200,000 Serbian
Croats who lived in the region and were forcibly deported to Serbia by Gotovina’s
troops. According to the Hague, the Croatian troops killed 150 Serbs and burnt
the houses of thousands of others so that they couldn’t return.
Football and politics in the Balkans. The plan to give the proceeds of the Dynamo v Hajduk game to the alleged Croatian
war criminals once again demonstrates the links between sport and nationalism
in the former Yugoslavia. The former Milan player Zvonimir Boban, for example,
has never denied his support for Franjo Tudjman, the Croatian president who was
also charged by the Hague, while the star of Croatian tennis, Goran Ivanisevic,
publicly defended Gotovina after his arrest. Things in Serbia are little different
where Sinisa Mihajlovic, the professional footballer, was a great friend and admirer
of Arkan, the Serbian leader of the paramilitary Tigers who was also accused of
crimes against humanity in Bosnia and Kosova, before being assassinated by a sniper.
Arkan, who began his militancy among the hooligan fringe of Red Star Belgrade
supporters, consolidated his nationalist base by becoming president of Obilic
football club.Alessandro Ursic
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