THE RETURN OF IVAN ZVONIMIR CICAK In the re-activation of the membership of the former HHO president, from the organisation's golden era, some members see a hope for the financial rescue of the human rights association To whom does Ivo Banac render his accounts? Because, aside from the fact that he does not render them to the public, it also became evident at the plenary session of the Croatian Helsinki Committee (HHO), which he has been at the helm of since November of last year, held on 26 September, that he also does not feel accountable to the members of the organisation which is considered a "lighthouse of democracy". The HHO is in dire financial straits, which Ivo Banac himself states at the plenary session.

"The financial situation is not favourable at the moment, but it is not hopeless. We have received a number of considerable donations, and expect many more. I am confident that my next report to the HHO plenary meeting, and that will be in mid November, will show that we have, if not resolved, are then on the way to resolving this problem, because the truth is that our employees have not, unfortunately, received their wages in months. If there was a way to resolve this, we would resolve it the same instant, but the circumstances were such as they were, and I think that many who know somewhat more about our financial situation also know the answer to why the situation is as it is. If someone wants to know the details, I am ready to answer, but I would delve deeper at a different kind of meeting, without the presence of the press. I think you will understand me in this."

None of the HHO members, perhaps in part because the issue was broached near the very end of an exhausting session of many hours, did not pose a single question on whom the donators mentioned by Ivo Banac were and what exactly his strategy for the salvation of the HHO in the face of a financial collapse was. Nobody protested either after Banac, at the very end of the meeting, curtly cut off long time employee Jaroslav Pecnik, head of the regional centre for Slavonia, an guest lecturer at the Evangelical & Theological College in Osijek, who posed the following question of the members:
"I am personally distressed by the fact that no one has felt it appropriate to ask – how do you people live without five months wages. What am I supposed to do when someone comes in to complain that their employer has not paid their wages in two months – say that I have not received my pay for five?! Should I complain to the HHO and ask it to protect me from my employer?" a revolted Pecnik said at the meeting, but was curtly cut off by Banac, who then closed the meeting.

The situation in the HHO is difficult not only because of the fact that the employees have not received their wages in five months, but also because they evidently cannot find new donators, and a decision by Ivo Banac did away with the projects that were providing funds.

An answer to the question who, exactly, were the HHO donators and what the origin of the donations mentioned by Ivo Banac was, was not forthcoming at the organisation. The organisation's president Ivo Banac is unwilling at all to make a statement for Nacional, as he feels that Nacional is leading a campaign targeting him, and treasurer Danijel Zderic refused to give an interview for Nacional and was unwilling to discuss the HHO finances. There is a list of donators on organisation's Internet site, but lacking any information on when they last donated money and for what projects. But, when it comes to projects, Ivo Banac has put the brakes on almost all of the projects that the HHO was leading at the moment he came into the post of president. There are currently no new projects and therein lies the tragedy of the entire situation. Along with that, Banac is trying to insinuate that the fault for this lies with the former employees who moved money from one project to another, in spite of the fact that an audit has found that there were no major irregularities in the HHO operations while it was lead by Zarko Puhovski. Puhovski for his part said that in his time at the helm of the organisation that it did happen that wages were late, but that there were three times as many employees at the time, and that the wages were never more than three months late.

"Now we have three times fewer employees, and the wages are already five months late. The problem is all the more serious because there is no program in sight on the basis of which money could arrive in the near future."

Besides that, the most active members have already left the organisation, such as the last in a series to do so, Zdravko Bazdan, a member from Dubrovnik who resigned from the post of vice president in May citing disagreements with Banac, and who has now, as a result of the return of Ivan Zvonimir Cicak to membership, also withdrawn his membership. There are, however, some other members who have said they would leave, or have said that they are seriously considering it.

Some of the HHO membership sees the resolution of the problem in the return of Ivan Zvonimir Cicak, the former president of the organisation, to the ranks of the membership, who would, with his connections, secure a more constant flow of funds. But how are donators to be found when the credibility of the HHO has been marred by the latest scandal involving the organisation's president Ivo Banac. What is the state of the moral credibility of the HHO president after a report from the State Audit Office on the operations of political parties and independent deputies was made public, in which it was discovered that independent MP in the previous mandate of the Parliament Ivo Banac rented himself his own apartment as office space, for 39,600 kuna, that he spent over 17 thousand kuna on taxis, and as much as 140 thousand kuna from the national budget for his office furniture.

A STORMY PLENARY SESSION OF THE HHO held on 26 September, lasted four and a half hours during which Ivan Zvonimir Cicak was reinstated to the membership, and as a result of which Zdravko Bazdan tendered his resignation

A man who accuses the former employees for malversation that even an audit could not find, only a month after his term in Parliament ended, in October of 2007, purchases shelves worth 20 thousand euro, which he wrote off just two months later. The State Audit Office, however, established that the shelving was in use and that Ivo Banac should have entered them in the auxiliary ledgers as inventory.

But, Ivo Banac has in his statements to date not only show a complete lack of regret, nor apologised to the Croatian public for the fact that he purchased shelving at a price sufficient to outfit an entire apartment at the taxpayer's expense, but he also sees nothing contentious in it all. Just like the members of the Croatian Helsinki Committee who failed to ask him that question at the meeting. What is more, Ivan Zvonimir Cicak ardently defended him in the Nedjeljom u 2 (Sundays at 2) TV show, telling host Aleksandar Strankovic that Banac has a collection of 20 thousand books and collects all papers and documents that come into his hands. There is no doubt that Ivo Banac, as a historian, owns a mass of books, but they are his private books, and the shelves were to have served as office furniture in which he carried out his Parliament-related tasks.

And while Banac insists that he did everything in accordance with the law, attorney Veljko Miljevic, a former HHO vice president, says that the money was spent illegally.

"The law on political party and independent deputy financing states expressly that the legal basis for spending financial resources is the Annual Work Plan. Banac did not have one at the moment of the State Audit Office's control. In the operations of this, allegedly honest, professor there are indications of at least two crimes. Not a single one of the travel orders found by the State Audit Office was credible or signed, and the book shelves, which he paid 140 thousand kuna in October of 2007, he wrote off just two months later as inventory without value. At the moment of the State Audit Office's control Banac did not even have an inventory book in which these shelves would have been entered", says Miljevic.

He recently outfitted his three-room legal office with shelves. They are solid wood shelves and did not cost in excess of 30 thousand kuna. From a respected Zagreb-based company in the woodworking business we received the data that one metre of the highest quality shelving of solid wood can cost from a thousand to several thousand kuna, depending on the design. A cubic metre of oak, for example, costs 6 thousand kuna, while a cubic metre of teak costs about 50 thousand kuna. Even if he truly did spend all 140 thousand kuna on shelves, the question that arises is whether it is morally proper for a Member of Parliament to, near the end of his mandate, in October of 2007, spend taxpayer money on the most expensive shelves on the market, and then to, to make it all the more absurd, write them off after two months. So he should then, if they are no longer any good to him, bring them to Parliament. But he cannot do that as he is still, of course, using them, as the findings of the State Audit Office have shown.

How then are potential donators to the HHO to trust a man who evidently, legally or not, abused state funds?

Because of the problems in the work of the Croatian Helsinki Committee the organisation was, besides, this September visited by representatives of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, a significant donator to the HHO, with the aim of determining what was going on at the Croatian committee. During the plenary meeting Banac attacked members of the youth wing because of the fact that they collectively tendered their resignations during the visit by the Norwegian delegation. But former HHO youth wing coordinator Mario Mazic wanted to explain publicly the circumstances and reasons for its dissolution.

"We are a youth group under the auspices of the HHO, in which 115 young people from across Croatia are active, we had our own projects and activities. At one point, without explanation, we were told that our projects had been halted and we were forbidden the use of funds earmarked for these projects. What hurt me the most and what is not true is the statement by Mr. Banac before the plenary meeting that a certain group of young people intentionally used the moment of the arrival of donators from Norway to provoke an extraordinary situation. That is an entirely erroneous statement. Our projects were discontinued and our work thwarted, and when we grasped that we had nothing more to do, we tendered our collective resignations. Besides that, it should be pointed out that Banac, since he has been president, has not once met with us, even though a date had been set on several occasions." As the reason why he decided to speak out publicly about these problems this time, Mazic cited the statements of some prominent HHO members such as Zarko Puhovski, Zdravko Bazdan and Nikola Viskovic, people for which there was no doubt that they shared the ideals that are the essence of the HHO.

Tin Gazivoda, the director of the Human Rights Centre, has already tendered his resignation from membership in the executive Committee, and has now had to freeze his membership

"The second reason is the departure of a large number of employees, and these were people who were with the HHO during the toughest times and who have for years been followed and eavesdropped on by the police and secret services. The third reason is the departure of 115 young people who found themselves in the ideals of the HHO and joined the youth group to secure the future of the HHO among the younger generation. The fourth reason were the damaged relations with partners and associates who had for months not received fees for lectures, with no explanation why this was so. If the interpersonal relations both in the membership and in the office are in such a poor state, these are for me the chief indicators that this leadership is not doing its job well", points out Mario Mazic.
That something is awry at the HHO was established at the meeting even by political scientist Drazen Lalic, who said that the meeting did not even touch on human rights issues.