February 24, 2005

The Honorable Warren L. Miller

U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America's

Heritage Abroad

888 17th Street, NW

Suite 1160

Washington, DC 20006

Dear Mr. Miller:

We were disheartened to read the text of your February 9, 2005 remarks made upon the signing of the Agreement Between the United States of America and the Republic of Croatia on the Protection and Preservation of Certain Cultural Properties. Your statement contained numerous factual errors and wrongly presented Croatian history as being inextricably linked with fascism, intolerance and ethnic hatred.

We are shocked that while describing the Ustashe’s crimes you failed to make any mention of the participation of hundreds of thousands of Croats who battled against fascism during World War II. Further, nowhere do you mention the hundreds of thousands of other Croats who were summarily executed by Italian and German occupation forces, by the Chetniks and by the Partisans. To merely focus on the crimes of the Ustashe without taking into account the tremendous suffering of the Croatian people as a whole during World War II can only be deemed to be an insult to the memory of those innocents killed during the War and to their families.

Unfortunately, you also portrayed a distorted picture of events in Croatia in the 1990s. As an initial matter, we call to your attention the fact that President Tudjman never defended the Ustashe regime. Indeed, such a defense would be incredible in light of his and his wife’s own participation in the Partisans during World War II. What President Tudjman suggested was that the creation of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH), not of the regime which ruled that state, was initially generally welcomed by Croats desirous for independence from a repressive Serbian-dominated state. Obviously, as the nature of the regime became apparent, a regime which handed over large portions of ethnic Croatian territory to Italy and Hungary, most Croats turned against it.

President Tudjman’s true views of the NDH are enshrined in the preamble of Croatia’s 1991 Constitution. The Croatian Constitution lists, among other things, the Territorial Anti-Fascist Council for the National Liberation of Croatia (ZAVNOH), a para-parliament established by the Partisans, as a link in the chain of continuity of Croatian statehood over the centuries. Significantly, the NDH is not mentioned anywhere as part of that link.

We also remind you that among the achievements of President Tudjman’s government was the prosecution and conviction of Dinko Sakic, one of the Jasenovac’s commanders and the last concentration camp official to be tried in Europe.

Your description of the 1991-1995 war in Croatia is particularly troublesome. Nowhere do you acknowledge that the war was imposed on Croatia as a result of the territorial appetites of the Greater Serbian government in Belgrade. Their aggression against Croatia led to the occupation of over a quarter of the country for four years, the deaths of over 10,000 civilians and the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of others from their homes.

Croatia is without doubt one of the most tolerant of all the states that made up former Yugoslavia. Unlike Slovenia, for example, Croatia has not taken steps to legally eliminate its ethnic minorities. To the contrary, Croatia’s parliament includes Constitutionally-mandated representatives of its minority communities (including Serbs and Italians). Indeed, the current government remains in power in part because of the support it receives from ethnic minority political parties. The government generously provides funds to many different ethnic minority institutions. Moreover, polls conducted by American organizations have found that most Croats have a favorable impression of most other ethnic groups.

One should recognize that this tolerance did not appear overnight but is based on centuries of respect which Croats have generally shown to foreigners and minorities of all stripes. Your remarks fail to take this into account.

We trust that you and other members of the Commission will keep the foregoing matters in mind in your future dealings with Croatia as the Agreement is implemented.

Very truly yours,

John Peter Kraljic

Director of Political Affairs

cc: The Honorable Gary J. Lavine

Ms. Katrina A. Krzysztofiak

Ambassador Edward O’Donnell

Mr. Bertram Braun

Embassy of the Republic of Croatia