Nacional has learned that due to the current politicized leadership of Hvidra, the Croatian Handicapped War Veterans Society, led by HDZ MP Josip Djakić, a movement has begun to destroy this organization and to establish a new Hvidra. Retired Colonel Bozo Drmić, a handicapped war veteran and former member of the 2nd Guard Brigade Thunder, one of the founders of the special police in Lučko, is leading this initiative to establish a new umbrella association for all the Croatian handicapped veterans, as he considers the current organization to be an extended arm of Ivo Sanader and HDZ, which does nothing to protect the veterans and the dignity of the Patriotic War. Furthermore, the new Hvidra will demand a review of all the handicapped and war veterans of the Patriotic War.

The veterans are embittered by the fact that in 2001, Sanader called the veterans to rally at the Split waterfront and to use their bodies if necessary to oppose the extradition of the Croatian generals to the Hague Tribunal, thereby winning their votes for the parliamentary electionsNacional has learned that Drmić, who has already gathered together the former members of the special police from Lučko, has great support from retired Brigadier Damir Simunić, one of the founders of the Guard Brigade Tigers, and this at the time when the units were organized by current Chief of the General Staff Josip Lucić, commander of the army General Marijan Mareković and General Jozo Miličević. Simunić is better known as the soldier who destroyed the first YNA tank in the Ilok region. In addition to Drmić and Simunić, retired Colonel Boris Jecović, former member of the special unit Crna mamba from the 2nd Guard Brigade, will also be part of the new Hvidra leadership.

The plans to establish a new Hvidra is a serious blow for Sanader and HDZ. Sanader installed HDZ MP Djakić, also County President of HDZ for the Virovitica-Podravina County, back in May 2004 with only one intent, to soften all pressures from the veterans which could appear concerning the possible extradition of General Gotovina. Now it is clear that Djakić failed to soothe the veteran’s associations, which means that Sanader can no longer control the events in the field and possible demonstrations in the streets.

With his recent statement that Gotovina will have to be handed over to the Hague Tribunal, Djakić attempted to take part of the blow upon himself from the veteran’s associations aimed at Sanader if the government extradites Gotovina to the Hague Tribunal.

Due to Djakić’s statement, coordinated with the position of the Croatian government, there has been a complete breakdown among veterans, there have been serious threats of the formation of veterans’ political parties with a military wing, HDZ officials have been called traitors, and several dozen branch offices of Hvidra, particularly from the southern Dalmatian regions, have already begun to disobey the Main Board of Hvidra, threatening to take to the streets.

Sanader’s concern was best seen at last week’s meeting with the leaders of the opposition parties. Already in the introductory part of the meeting, he stated that the party leaders would have to do all in their power to try to prevent possible protests and unrest in the streets. The opposition leaders were surprised by Sanader’s concern at the meeting, believing that the scenario of “rolling through the streets” is unlikely, and Sanader had held such associations under control up to that point, which was best seen by the well known rally on the Split waterfront. The leaders of the parliamentary parties were more concerned over the fact that a delayed date for the start of negotiations for Croatia’s accession to the EU could lead to Euro-skepticism and weaken public support for eurointegration. However, the Premier was obviously already well informed on 23 February as to the intent and future conclusions of the Zadar convention “The Truth about the Patriotic War”, held 25 February under organization of UHDDR and Hvidra of the Zadar and Split-Dalmatia Counties, which announced that the Croatian veterans would go up against the government and its officials over the issue of extraditing Ante Gotovina.

At the extra-sessional meeting of the Main Board of Hvidra, held on 28 February, Djakić and twenty members of the Board remained completed isolated in their newest conclusion that Gotovina, as a suspect, should be permitted the opportunity to speak with Hague investigators in Zagreb. This was an attempt at a compromise conclusion with the remaining associations, as only two days earlier, they announced that Gotovina would have to go to the Hague. To make matters worse, following the Hvidra Board meeting Djakić did not even appear before the press in order to comment on his statement that Gotovina would have to go to the Hague. With his non-appearance, he raised many questions about the credibility of the conclusion and the suspicion of a possible split in the Main Board, while their have been requests from the field for his resignation.

A thousand members gathered together in the branch offices of Hvidra are getting out of control and seeking the resignation of their leadership, believing that the new conclusions of the Board led by Djakić are completely unacceptable. The war veterans believe that the acceptance of such conclusions would mean giving the right to all those who suspect the general of war crimes, and with that, they suspect all those that were under his command. With that, the veterans are embittered by the fact that in 2001, Sanader called the veterans to rally at the Split waterfront and to use their bodies if necessary to oppose the extradition of the Croatian generals to the Hague Tribunal, thereby winning their votes for the parliamentary elections.

The dramatic events surrounding Gotovina’s extradition to the ICTY have turned into a good reason to attack Djakić and a portion of those veteran associations that have been covering up crime and illegal acts within Hvidra in the past few years. Upon taking the top position in Hvidra, Djakić began to investigate in detail the criminal activities of his predecessors, in particular the mission 38 million kuna in shares for Croatian war veterans within the Croatian Homeland Fund. As things now stand, if he leaves it is unlikely that there will be any results in that investigations. A dozen profitable companies of the Association of Croatian Handicapped Veterans of the Patriotic War (Hvidra) and ten veteran’s companies have for years been operating non-transparently and turning over millions of kuna despite claims by their directors that they receive either very meager or no state and community aid.

For more than 5 years, Hvidra has been managing eight public parking garages, twenty parking lots with a total of eight thousand parking spots, a dozen companies have received concessions to provide towing services in the larger cities, and with that there is the realization of existing legal benefits, such as handicap benefits, automobiles and housing.

Though for some time the general conception in Croatia is that the Hvidra companies are non-profitable and that they are very humbly financed from the budgets of local communities, each attempt to audit their operations ends with street talk, political pressure and the most ridiculous was when the Hvidra leaders claimed that the request for their transparent operations was an attack on the Patriotic War. Therefore, by attacking Djakić, those people who are against finding the real culprits for the crimes in Hvidra will be most satisfied.

All in all, the gathering of the former military elite, otherwise close friends of the current active generals in the Croatian Military, and the announcement of the establishment of political parties within the veteran’s population will hit HDZ hardest with a possible catastrophic result at the upcoming local elections. Furthermore, it is now clear that HDZ is facing a serious breakdown from within. If one considers that the Croatian veterans have always been the core of the HDZ voting machine, and that the president of the Club of Founders of HDZ, Djuro Perica, also decided to turn his back on Sanader on the issue of extraditing General Gotovina, it could be said that Sanader today is fighting an equal battle on the foreign and interior fronts, likely the most difficult to date.