Preliminary communication
https://doi.org/10.22586/ss.19(2019).1.9
An Enemy of the State from Okučani: The Case of the Political Prisoner and Émigré Janjko Sarajlić
Ivica Miškulin
Abstract
The case of the political prisoner and émigré Janjko Sarajlić should be treated as a contribution to the knowledge of the variations of the political opposition to the Yugoslav communist regime in the last decade of its existence. Living in poverty, Sarajlić found a way of making a living for himself and his numerous family in West Germany. However, in this state he also experienced a space of freedom, i.e. became acquainted with a different image of the situation in Yugoslavia and accordingly developed a strongly critical attitude toward communism. Subsequently, due to an alleged minor breach of the regulations – bringing prohibited literature into the state - he was accused of having committed a political crime. After the trial he was de facto declared an enemy of the state and was sent to some of the most notorious prisons of communist Croatia (the penal and correctional institutions of Stara Gradiška and Lepoglava). Long-term imprisonment, along with various types of repression, additionally strengthened his hostile attitude toward the regime.
Sarajlić’s oppositional activities – possession of prohibited literature, hunger strikes, refusal of work, the writing of petitions and submissions, work for international human rights organizations, membership in Croatian emigrant organizations and his writing efforts – should be evaluated non-violent forms of resistance. In this respect Sarajlić can be defined as an enemy of the state or as a political opponent of the Yugoslav communist regime, who tried to bring about a change in the situation, primarily the disintegration of Yugoslavia and the establishment of an independent Croatian state, through peaceful means. In practice, his forms of struggles failed to achieve his aspirations, i.e. the disintegration of Yugoslavia; however these struggles should not be underestimated. The conclusion can be drawn that his struggles, at least in terms of propaganda, led to a better acquaintance of western decision-making centres with the non-democratic nature of communist Yugoslavia. Although these struggles led to no concrete anti-Yugoslav actions, the efforts of people such as Sarajlić demonstrated that communist Yugoslavia was on the one hand a place where various kinds of violations of human rights were taking place, and on the other hand that there were individuals and groups which did not approve of such conditions.
Keywords
political crime; political prisoners; human rights; Croatian political emigration; Janjko Sarajlić; communist Yugoslavia
Hrčak ID:
231746
URI
Publication date:
31.10.2019.
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