From:
"Hrvoje
Latkovic" <dynamic10@home.com>
Date: Wed, January 19, 2000 11:12
Subject: "CROATIA -
PROPERTIES"
Dear Maureen:
Reportedly, there is a lot of changes in
Croatia lately:
- Mr. Racan is elected,
- reportedly Mr. Mesic has a big chance to win the
presidency over Mr. Budisa, (NY Times article)
- and reportedly, the infamous HDZ is crumbling down.
- rumors are spreading that "wealthy" members
of HDZ, fearing investigations and possibly prosecution, are
rapidly "exporting" their money abroad.
- reportedly, the Secretary of State is planning a
visit to Croatia in the near future.
What this has to do with our property
return:
1. Mr. Racan, an
ex-"Communist Youth" leader at the time of SFRJ,
during the HDZ regime was always pledging for the return of
the stolen so-called "Communist property" which was
stolen from the people by the HDZ regime. That property is
the one built during the SFRJ regime, based on the
non-nationalized and non-confiscated properties, through the
work and mandatory contributions of the people of SFRJ.
2. Mr. Mesic on the other hand, had good
contacts with our organization in Zagreb, and always
expressed himself as being inclined for the restitution
of nationalized and confiscated properties.
3. On January 6, 7 and 8, The New York Times
reported that the U.S. Secretary of State Ms.
Madeleine Albright is planning a visit to Croatia: q:"(...)
perhaps for the new president's inauguration.(...)" e.o.q.
Although her office (Mr. Phillip Frayme) repeatedly
denied this statement to me, they didn't deny that a
trip is indeed foreseen for the near future.
These recent events and the ones
which will happen in the near future are of crucial
importance to us Americans
whose properties have been expropriated through
confiscation and the never-compensated-nationalization during
the Communist regime under President Tito and which
expropriations have been confirmed through many
infamous laws recently passed during the HDZ regime of
President Tudjman.
Therefore, it is of crucial
importance to us Americans, whose expropriated
properties on the territory of the Republic of Croatia are
now enjoyed by thieves and intruders, that the question of RESTITUTION
OF EXPROPRIATED AND NEVER COMPENSATED PROPERTIES be
included in Ms. Albright's agenda, obviously in the stage of
elaboration now for her next visit to Croatia.
Dear Maureen, I and many other Americans
affiliated with me and our organization, would like to know
if you or anybody else in the C.S.C.E. office - Washington,
is working today on this subject based on the information we
have been providing to you in the past? Would you
know if these recent events in Croatia "triggered"
Congressman Smith to work closely with Ms. Albright or with
anyone else within the U.S. Department of State whose task is
to protect the rights of the U.S. citizens and their
properties?
Please let me know a.s.a.p. Me
and SUVLAH - Zagreb are always staying at your disposal
in case you need any more information regarding this subject.
Since there have been a lot of confusion
from the U.S. State Department and others about which
properties we are talking about, please let me clarify one
more time: we are talking about the expropriated properties
which were confiscated and nationalized (never compensated)
under the Tito's Regime, during the period of the
SFRJ. Many within the U.S. Administration,
including our President Clinton, are confusing this
expropriation with the one which occurred recently on the
territory of Krajina Region, during the Tudjman's regime of
HDZ and after the break-up of SFRJ. There is no doubt
in my mind the Krajina Region issue will be included in the
mentioned agenda. I would be very grateful to you if you
could pass this information to others involved so this
terrible confusion of circumstances and chronology of events
could be avoided.
I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Best regards,
Hrvoje Latkovic
Tel: (201) 867 1483
From:
"Ado
Vujasinovic" <ado@sprintmail.com>
Date: Wed, January 19, 2000 21:53
Subject: "Re: CROATIA -
PROPERTIES"
I have, Mr. Latkovic,
read your letter to Ms Welsh. Considering the recent
political changes in Croatia I would suggest writing a
letter with similar content directly to a higher-up
person, say Ms Albright herself and/or somebody in
Congress, with signatures of as many as possible
interested US citizens like ourselves. The politicians
still like to make their judgements based on the
"number of votes"! I think a single letter with
50, or even 100 signatures, will be more effective than
as many single letters sent separately. What do you
think?
Best regards, Ado
PS: pisem Vam engleski jer kopiram Vuka.
From: "Hrvoje
Latkovic" <dynamic10@home.com>
Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2000 11:56:28
Subject: "Re: CROATIA -
PROPERTIES"
So far only Ms. Alexandra Mareschi
and you reacted positively to this say
"action". All the others remained
"mute". If they plan to do something, they
should do it a.s.a.p. and if possible, let me/us
know. There is no much time left.
Re. Ms. Walsh: she is the main
contact person within the CSCE - Washington, and she is
the only person who expressed interest on this subject.
In my opinion that interest is because that is her job,
although people who know her personally are telling me
that there is more than just "doing her job".
She is a direct "liaison"
to Congressman C. Smith, who is the Chairman of the
CSCE/Washington Commission (see http://www.house.gov/csce/commish.htm)
(On this page you can find all Congressman and all
Senators on the Board of Commissioners). When I asked her
once if I should CC to Mr. Smith, she said that this is
not necessary since she is passing everything received
(of importance) directly to him.
Ms. Walsh was always asking to
contact her as much as possible and to spread that
request to others. As far as I understood the
situation, she needs a "critical mass" of
people, (not just two- three) to be able to support her
work in the path as we want: success and not a dead file
on some few individuals who are looking for some pieces
of land somewhere on this blue world, and who look to
others like "borderline lunatics".
That letter I have written is
addressed only to Ms. Walsh to push her to do what she
needs to do before Ms. Albright leaves for Croatia.
That letter cannot be sent to Congressmen and
Senators. Ms. Walsh obtained an enormous
amount of information from us, not in excess, but just
what she needs to make a perfect case and a perfect
presentation to the Commissioners. Whether she is doing
this or not, I don't know, so I wanted to remind her that
this is the right time, otherwise it will be too
late. To the best of my knowledge, no other
organization or individuals did what SUVLAH did in their
meticulous analysis of all the relevant laws involving
Confiscation and Nationalization, and in particular the
latest and the most infamous law, passed in 1996: The Law
on Compensation. NO ONE DID THAT. And this is the
basis for all the claims against any Croatian regime
past, present or future, who didn't, who is not, or who
would not restitute our properties. All this
material is in the hands of Ms. Walsh. And people
who saw that work and read that work are saying that this
exceeds by far a PhD in Law. The complete study was
prepared by several prominent lawyers in Zagreb who were
obviously not on the side of HDZ politics.
Further more, that
letter or any other contacts with CSCE Washington can be done by anyone
who is European or American, since that organization is not an American
organization but "CSC-Europe". As an example, Ms. Mareschi had a
very productive meeting with Ms. Walsh in Europe recently.
...............................................
The letter to
Congressmen/women and Senators should be written a.s.a.p. In order
to be taken in consideration, these letters should be written by
Americans only. We should all write to our respective
Congressman/woman and to all the Senators from our own respective State.
Based on the previous and numerous correspondence with these people, the
stubling block is the sequence of events: they are all requesting from
us to be American national "prior or at the time of disturbance of our
properties or prior to when the claim arouse". And this is their
way to get "rid of us" and to get "rid of a big problem". We all
know that.
Please note one very important
thing: Ms. Walsh and CSCE is NOT(!!!!) supporting that
"theory", and for her that theory is not
standing the grounds.
In respect to that request from the
American authorities:
1. There is no
written law which "spells out" that request.
This is their pure convenience. This is a method they
came with in order to discourage us to proceed further
with our request to the U.S. Government in assisting us
in recovering our properties through restitution. In
order to enforce their "invented' clause, one would
have to write this as a Bill than a Law, which will be
definitely "killed" immediately after the Bill
would be introduced. Why: whoever is asking us to meet
that criteria is actually violating the U.S.
Constitution.
2. Regarding the
"when the claim arouse": THE CLAIM DID
NOT AROUSE at the time of the nationalization and
confiscation. The claim arouse now, after the passing of
the 1996 law on compensation. At that time we were
all U.S. nationals.
3. Nationalization:
a/ nationalization, when it was introduced by
law, was never carried out according to the legal
definition of nationalization: we were never compensated.
Therefore, nationalization in Croatia (& SFRJ) was
just another confiscation. U N T I L 1996
!!!!
b/ nationalization became a real
nationalization only after the passing of the Law of
Compensation, in 1996. That Law on compensation is
nothing else but the confirmation, once again, of the
nationalization which started after the WW2 and was
terminated by that Law in 1996. Therefore the real
nationalization was empowered only in 1996.
c/ the point is that one can not raise a
claim against someone "who intend to
nationalize", which was the case of the SFRJ
government till the establishment of the new government
of HDZ in 1991 with a waiting period ("Law in
Preparation") from 1991 till October 1996.
4. Confiscation:
The law on Rehabilitation passed in the early '90-ties,
is requesting from the gov. of Croatia to:
a/ Rehabilitate all the civil rights to
a person
b/ Return all the confiscated properties
to the person who is rehabilitated.
The point is that the Croatian
government is complying only with the "a/
part" of the law, but is refusing to follow with the
"b/ part" of the law, which is to restitute all
the confiscated properties to the rehabilitated
individual.
.....................
The above is to say that if we do
not target these particular subject and dismiss their
"non-standing-but-convenient-arguments" we will
keep receiving standard letters from all these
Congressmen and Senators, and we will go round-and-round
in circles.
Therefore the letter to the Senators
and Congressmen should basically say: "Don't give me
that "espousal doctrine" any more since you are
violating your own Constitution".
etc...
So, by all means, letters to
Senators and Congressmen should be sent right now, before
Ms. Albright trip to Croatia. However, a
letter to Ms. Walsh CSCE should be written as well by all
Americans and non Americans - European nationals!!!!!
TO ALL:
Please write back with at least some kind of input.
Thanks,
Hrvoje
