Viktor Ivancic, the chief editor of the well-known Croatian opposition satirical magazine Feral Tribune, was forcibly mobilised into the military on January 5.
According to a statement by the editors of Feral Tribune, Ivancic received a call-up on December 31. The paper was without official number, date or signature. After five days, the civil police abducted him to a military barracks.
It is very unusual for the chief editor of a newspaper to be mobilised.
Feral Tribune is an independent satirical weekly founded half a year ago, very sarcastic towards the Croatian government, ruling party and President Franjo Tudjman. For example, the cover of the last issue was a photomontage of Tudjman and Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic lying in an embrace in bed.
Ivancic and two other journalists of the weekly Nedjeljna Dalmacija created Feral Tribune as a supplement six or seven years ago, during the old regime. They were thrown out of Nedjeljna Dalmacija, but continued a weekly supplement in the daily newspaper Slobodna Dalmacija.
This daily and they personally had a lot of problems after the political changes, because they continued the struggle for democracy and human rights. They were accused of being "nationalists" and "anticommunists" in the old regime and as "yugonostalgic" and "communists" in the new one.
Nedjeljna Dalmacija was put under state control and then became the private property of an important member of the ruling party in March. Today it is one of the strongest sources of anti-Muslim propaganda. Ivancic and the others lost their jobs and founded an independent magazine.
This mobilisation is part of a new wave. Among others, a large number of refugees from Bosnia-Hercegovina and other BH citizens have been mobilised by force and sent to the front in Bosnia. Some people think that the Croatian government is preparing stronger military engagement in BH, and at the same time it is using mobilisation as a tool against "state enemies".
Accusations from the international community of Croatian involvement in BH are used by the ruling party for propaganda that "we Croats are threatened, we are surrounded by enemies, we must be united and we must immobilise all traitors". It is the same as has been happening in Serbia.
Viktor Ivancic was born in Sarajevo at 1960, and has been living in Croatia since 1971. He is reported to be in barracks in Split. He says that he will proclaim himself a conscientious objector.
The publishers of Feral Tribune have asked the Ministry of Defence to annul Ivancic's call-up.
[From the Croatian antiwar movement, via Pegasus.]