Izvorni znanstveni članak
https://doi.org/10.31141/zrpfs.2017.54.126.783
The Question of Continuity of the Republic of Croatia with the Predecessor States on it Soil
Vladimir-Đuro Degan
; Sveučilište u Rijeci, Rijeka, Hrvatska
Vesna Barić Punda
; Pravni fakultet Sveučilišta u Splitu, Split, Hrvatska
Sažetak
The incentive for the present paper was the Class Action Complaint submitted to the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois Easter Division against the Republic of Croatia on 31 May 2016. The plaintiffs were victim survivors and hairs of Croatian Jews, Serbs and Roma who were deprived of their property and possessions as a result of the Holocaust allegedly conducted by the present Republic of Croatia during World War II. The Plaintiffs claim the lump sum of 3,500.000.000 US$.
The rationale of this case is the alleged continuity in international personality of the Republic of Croatia with the so-called "Independent State of Croatia" (NDH), established by the occupants of Yugoslavia Italy and Germany during that period of time. Such a continuity and identity does not exist for following reasons:
This Class Action complaint is based on contradictory arguments which eliminate one another. In parts 13 to 18 of its text the Plaintiffs invoke the Wannssee meeting of high ranking SS and Gestapo officials, convened by SS-Obergruppenfuhrer Reinhard Heidrich on 20 January 1942. The meeting was organized shortly after German declaration of war to the United States when Nazis lost all constraints, even for propaganda purposes, in brutal execution of the Holocaust, i.e. the liquidation of Jews in all parts of Europe occupied by the Reich.
However, the satellite Government of the NDH was not invited to participate in this or in other important meetings to this end. Its duty was implicitly understood to carry out all German orders. Ustaše even distinguished them before Germans in brutal execution of that policy. This fact confirms the truthfulness of the conclusions of the U.S. Military Tribunal in Hostage Trials cited above that: “the Croatian Government was a satellite Government and whatever was done by them was done for the Germans”.
On the other hand, in this Class Action complaint the Plaintiffs contend ostensibly and without convincing arguments that “the Republic of Croatia” (meaning the present Croatian State) conducted the Holocaust during World War II, (sic!) and that: "From 1941 to 1945, Croatia was a member of the Axis Powers. Croatia committed genocide against its Jewish, Serbian, and Roma citizens..." In paragraph 19 it was furthermore asserted: "When Tito took over Yugoslavia after the war, communism was proclaimed throughout the country. The new Croatian authorities under the leadership of Franjo Tudjman, immediately adopted laws with racial characteristics similar to those of 1941, and re-organized state terror against minorities." By these allegations the Plaintiffs assert the absolute identity between the NDH and the present Republic of Croatia but they did not prove it. They ignored the following facts:
1. First of all, it must be repeated that between the so-called "Independent State of Croatia" and today's Republic of Croatia there exists neither identity nor legal continuity. By the will of occupants that puppet State embraced the territory of the present Republic of Croatia (except parts of the Adriatic coast with its hinterland), the entire Bosnia-Herzegovina and Sirmium (Srijem) i.e. the territory between rivers of Danube and Sava up to the suburb of Belgrade (Zemun). Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina are now independent States and UN members, and Sirmium as a part of Voyvodina, is integrated into the Republic of Serbia.
2. Upon the capitulation of Nazi Germany on 8 May 1945 and after the withdrawal of all its troops from Yugoslavia any authority of the NDH disappeared in the respective territories. This is another proof that this satellite regime could not survive the Nazi power that created it. For this reason the NDH did not possess the qualities of a sovereign State, and of genuine subject of international law.
In the period between May 1945 and the proclamation of independence of the Republic of Croatia on 25 June 1991 only the regime of the Socialist Republic of Croatia within the Yugoslav Federation was present on its territory. No Independent State of Croatia in Croatia itself or in Bosnia-Herzegovina existed then in any form. These facts also contradict the claim from the Class Action Complaint of the continuity between the NDH and the Republic of Croatia.
3. During World War II were progressively established on the liberated territories of Croatia new State organs under the leadership of Communists. In the same way appeared organs which were the nucleus of other federal entities within Yugoslavia. In the beginning the entire Yugoslavia, like the Soviet Union, was a very centralized State. All important political decisions for the entire Federation were made on the top of the Communist party of Yugoslavia in Belgrade. All State organs on the Federal level and all Party and State organs on the level of federal units were not more than transmissions in carrying out the top party decisions made in Belgrade.
However, in the course of time the situation deeply evolved. The Republics and Autonomous Provinces acquired much higher level of self rule in decision-making. Hence, Croatia got the chance after the fall of Berlin Wall in 1989 to become an independent State. In that process it was the League of Communists of Croatia that acquiesced on the multi-party system and first democratic elections for the Croatian parliament (Sabor) were organized in spring 1990.
All the above facts exclude any claim for continuity in time and space between the NDH and the present Republic of Croatia.
4. On the basis of the above facts the Republic of Croatia is the continuous State of the Socialist (before that "People's Republic", and still before "federal") Croatia within the Yugoslav Federation, that during World War II fought against the "Independent State of Croatia" and its criminal policy directed against Jews, Roma and Serbs. Franjo Tuđman was at that time partisan and an active combatant against that power and persecutions and crimes committed by it.
Ključne riječi
State identity and continuity; Puppet regimes; Independent State of Croatia; Expropriation of private property; Immunity of consular property
Hrčak ID:
189000
URI
Datum izdavanja:
7.11.2017.
Posjeta: 2.022 *