From: curcija@risky.ecs.umass.edu (Dragan Curcija)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.yugoslavia,soc.culture.europe
Subject: Elections in Croatia
Date: 13 Aug 92 16:45:46 GMT
Organization: University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Originator: curcija@medr0.ecs.umass.edu


	This is excerpt from article: Election days in Zagreb, published in
"Vreme" magazine, No. 96.  Posted without permission, for fair use only.

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...

    The atmosphere at the two election  rallies in the city center proved an
    interesting subject of discussion. One,  held by Paraga's followers, was
    an impressively  staged reincarnation of  the Nazi rallies  in Berlin in
    the  1930s. Several  hundred men  in black  shirts, watched  by a  large
    number of people, to the crescendo  of the roll of drums, welcomed their
    leader  with the  fascist salute  who solemnly  approached the  floodlit
    platform.

    The other rally was held just before moratorium on the election campaign
    by the  past, present and future  President of the Republic  who thanked
    people for  turning out. Witnesses of  such meetings held two  years ago
    asserted,  however, that  this time  the  crowds  were not  as dense  as
    before. Then, on the day the moratorium began, Stipe Mesic, the Chairman
    of  the  HDZ  Executive  Committee  and  the  last  president  of former
    Yugoslavia, held a promotion of  his book "How We Destroyed Yugoslavia".
    The   promotion   took   place   in   the   Crystal   Room  of  Zagreb's
    Intercontinental Hotel  in the presence of  prominent members of society
    members and domestic and foreign journalists.

    In Zagreb, buildings and monuments are carefully preserved. The monument
    to Ban  Jelacic, in Zagreb's central  square, is luxuriously illuminated
    by  night, but  streets off  the city  center give  the impression  that
    electricity has to be saved.

    In the  square of Croatia's  Greats, formerly called  the Square of  the
    Victims  of Fascism,  the smashed  tail of  a Yugoslav  Air Force  plane
    downed over Djakovo in November 1991, has been put on display.

    Young men and  some women in uniforms are regular  sights in the streets
    of  Zagreb.  They  belong  to  "Zenga"  (the  Croatian  Guard), HVO (the
    Croatian Defense Council), HV, (th e Army of Croatia), HOS (the Croatian
    Armed  Forces)  and  military  and  civilian  police  forces.They  carry
    nightsticks, pistols,  very long and  terrifying knives and  sub-machine
    guns. When they arrive here on leave, most of them do not take off their
    uniforms.  Those released  from army  units walk  around in fatigues for
    weeks on end.  Here too, the mental institutions  have long been crowded
    with people from the battlefronts.

...


    Looking at an  election poster of Tudjman hugging  smiling children, one
    girl says to another with a note  of despair in her voice: "Are we going
    to have  to look at  his face for  another five years?"  And a Slovenian
    television  program host  recently voiced  a similar  fear when he said:
    "Tudjman's triumph, has postponed Milosevic's fall."
                                                                  Ana Davico

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Regards,
Dragan


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