Domovina Urednistvo
„Sins of the Father“ do have consequences for future generations, says the Bible – even!
All of us living in developed democracies and under the rule of law (from which stem restrictions regarding conflict of interest) have been rightly taught that children are not responsible for what are called sins, crimes, evil deeds perpetrated by their father or their mother. However, it also follows that sins and crimes have consequences for future generations that include, for example, a child making concerted efforts in justifying a parent’s crime and/or normalising or trying to reduce its weight against human beings and nations. In the latter it follows that such a child himself/herself commits a „sin“or grave harm against the victims of his/her father’s crime. Similar consequences are found for good deeds done by the parent – a child reaps benefit from them be it material or social respect.
Having said this it would seem paramount for national and natural justice’s sake that incumbents of important positions in a country or nation that has been a victim of genocide and brutal aggression, such as Croatia has been from the 1990’s Yugoslav Army and rebel Serb aggression that defined the horrid Croatian Homeland War and defence of the Croatia peoples’ referendum to secede from communist Yugoslavia, are rigorously scrutinised. It is paramount for justice and well-being of Croatian nation that nobody closely associated with the aggressor, including their sons and daughters, are accepted into those positions or licence to operate in victim country be given to a media company employing them, for instance, a company that exerts influence in the public domain of that country. The profound gravity of conflict of interest is too visible to avoid fearing its effects. And yet, some of the Croatian media outlets have recently revealed that the son of the most violent and brutal convicted war criminal Milan Martic is actually working for an important media company that controls two television stations in Croatia (Z1 and NovaTV) that have substantial impact and control over what the media portarys and brings to the Croatian nation and people.
While that son of Milan Martic, Dusko Martic, reportedly may not have a role in directly deciding upon the content to be released in Croatia by the media company United Group the fact that he is employed by it (according to Linkedin information as Head of Content Security) does justify the fear that he has clout and influence in the company’s dealings and the likelihood of directly or indirectly influencing media content in Croatia. This would strongly appear to justify the public outrage at the government that obviously places little if any directives and rules as to who can and who cannot, on grounds of serious conflict of interest and its high likelihood, be employed by media companies given the licence to operate in CAs a reminder, Dusko’s father is Milan Martic, the last president of the so-called rebel-Serb created Republic of Serbian Krajina during early to mid-1990’s that ethnically cleansed the Croatian territory of hundreds of thousands of Croats and tens of thousands of other non-Serbs and murdered thousands, was in 2007 at the International Tribunal for War Crimes Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague, sentenced to 35 years in prison, on 16 counts of the indictment for acts committed between 1991 and 1995 that include persecution, murder, torture, deportation, extermination, attacks on civilians, wanton destruction of civilian areas, robbery, and other crimes against humanity and violation of the laws and customs of war in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. We have learned that no country that respects its people who lost blood and life in such horrendous aggression would tolerate the employment, or official activities, of any such aggressor or his/her child or grandchild, or brother or sister … in areas that directly impact the well-being of its nation that had suffered such horrors. Sadly, we have not learned this from Croatia or its governments since the war and Serb-occupations of its territory completely ended in 1998.
People will say that his father’s sins should not be Dusko Martic’s crimes and it is evident from all media outlets in Croatia that they are not considered as such and that Dusko is not to be personally burdened with perpetration of those crimes. They were, afer all, his father’s sins and not his. However, it is alarming that Dusko Martic has obvious media content pull in Croatia and yet appears as never having publicly distanced himself from his father’s war crimes or condemned them but rather indicated via some reported facebook posts that he leans towards standing behind Serbian push to equate the victim with the aggressor that falsely claimed Serbs were cleansed from Croatia in 1995 after Operation Storm. If anything, Croatian media suggests that Dusko has in the public arena been seen as a propagator of his father’s anti-Croatia and anti-Croat stance and ideas.
So, one wonders how is it possible that the Croatian government has permitted that a person so heavily associated with one of the biggest murderers of its people during the Homeland War can be permitted to exert official influence on the country’s mainstream media through employment with a media company that has evidently been granted licence to operate in Croatia! Or in any other official way for that matter. The answer may well be in the government’s evidently and perhaps intentionally misguided ideas about Serb-Croat reconciliation expressed through its coalition with the Serb Independent Democratic Party in Croatia/SDSS headed by members of Serb ethnic minority who were closely associated with rebel Serb aggressor against Croatia! It is alarming that as recently as 22 February 2024 Croatia’s Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic has via HRT TV news stated that this Croatian government’s coalition is a coalition with the entire Serb ethnic minority group in Croatia. Nothing could be further from the truth – SDSS represents only a part of that ethnic minority which part only includes Croatian Serbs associated with the aggressor against Croatia and not the part that fought shoulder to shoulder with Croats in defending Croatia from that Serb aggression. Evidently trying to score some political points at this pre-elections time Andrej Plenkovic said, mockingly, that the right-wing opposition in Croatia condemns the ruling HDZ party for its coalition with ethnic minorities including the Serb one. The truth is that the right-wing opposition has not condemned HDZ for coalition with ethnic minorities but for its coalition with SDSS! And that is a world of difference from what Plenkovic has claims.
The phrase, “sins of the fathers” appears in the Ten Commandments in Deuteronomy (5:10) and Exodus (20:5). The phrase also appears in the book of Numbers (14:18) and in Jeremiah (32:17-18). So, the phrase is linked to the keeping of the commandments and the consequences of sin passing through the generations. But the phrase is also a concept that is observed; sin does have consequences. The children of those who sin inherit the seed of sin and the sin nature and that seed becomes visible in their attempts to justify parental crimes or avoiding condemning them. And this appears as the alarming consequence or result of Milan Martic’s crimes upon his son Dusko.
That being the case, the media control that Croatia’s government exerts for political reasons should not and must not include a reckless disregard to which media companies and their staff are to operate in Croatia. Simply because the media is a crucial factor in people’s well-being and pursuit of justice. Ina Vukic
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