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COMMENT: Hunger Strikes Insult Genuine Victims of Injustice

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23 11 2006  There are striking similarities between Seselj and Glavas and their respective protests.

By Anna McTaggart in Zagreb (Balkan Insight, 23 Nov 06)

One can only imagine what the alleged victims of Branimir Glavas and Vojislav Seselj would have made of their decisions to go on hunger strike.

How might they feel, those whom Seselj’s men are said to have forced to eat body parts, or whom Glavas’s men may have forced to drink battery acid?

No one has asked. In the furore raised by the two men’s curious decisions, they have been virtually forgotten.

Glavas and Seselj fought on opposing sides in the 1990s – one for Croatian independence, the other for Greater Serbia. They are unlikely to appreciate being compared. Yet there are striking similarities between them.

Both were prominent wartime figures and peacetime politicians who now sit in the dock, one in Croatia, the other in The Hague. Both are charged with appalling war crimes.

The decisions to protest about their treatment through hunger strikes insults not only their alleged victims but also the very notion of a hunger strike as a last-ditch remedy against injustice.

Traditionally, political prisoners went on hunger strike only when they felt they had lost all hope of redeeming their rights though other means.

British suffragettes went to these lengths before the First World War to bring attention to the struggle to let women vote.

But they resorted to this course only after all other methods proved fruitless. More to the point, some died in jail, having decided to make the ultimate sacrifice for a cause that everyone now sees was just.

What cause do Glavas and Seselj strive to uphold? Which of their rights has been so trampled on that they feel justified in resorting to this action?

Glavas’s reasons are elusive. His principal complaint is that the investigation into his role in the killing of civilians in Osijek in the 1990s is politically motivated.

It is true that the prosecution of war crimes in Croatia has been flawed in the past. But any reasonable observer of his own case over the past six months would be hard-pressed to find evidence of serious violations.

Unlike the people he is alleged to have had executed in 1991, Glavas will have the full benefit of the criminal justice system to defend him against the charges he faces. With the world scrutinising Croatia’s democratic progress, it should be enough to ensure he has a fair trial.

The same goes for Seselj. The Hague tribunal cannot seriously be compared to a kangaroo court. But then, Seselj’s reasons for a hunger strike do not really extend to such complaints. For him, unrestricted spousal visits, free rein to behave however he wishes in court and the right to choose anyone as his legal advisors warrant sacrificing his life.

We can see what these men really have in common – and it is arrogance. They truly believe they do not have to play by ordinary rules.

After years of enjoying power - Glavas in Slavonia, Seselj on the battlefields of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia - they are finally being called to account. They are finally being treated like everyone else. But equality before the law is hard for men who believed they were above it to swallow.

Their attempts to dispute the notion of the rule of law exposes their intrinsic disregard for the kind of democratic standards that - in the end - will rid the region of insecurity and enable it to rejoin the European mainstream.

In Croatia, the judicial system and the democratic political structure has been seen to struggle with the impact of Glavas’s strike.

In Seselj’s case, his campaign strikes at a legal institution that is well able to withstand such pressure.

But the consequences for war crimes justice are potentially serious. Activists have struggled for years to make Serbia confront its past and were dealt a blow by the deaths in custody this year of Milan Babic and Slobodan Milosevic. Another similar death could do immeasurable damage to the cause of justice for war crimes in Serbia.

These men’s essentially cowardly motives need to be exposed, therefore. Theirs are the bullyboy tactics that epitomise the worst kind of Balkan machismo. They must not be allowed to intimidate the independent justice systems struggling to take root in both Croatia and Serbia.

All we need to ask is whether Glavas and Seselj are likely to receive a fair trial and whether the terms and conditions of their pre-trial detention are fair.

The answer to both questions is - yes. Both men complied voluntarily with the detention orders issued after they were indicted. The progress of their trials is constantly in the public eye and is monitored by countless organisations and the media.

Both men have been presumed innocent until proven guilty, are able to present their cases with the use of evidence and witnesses, and receive visits and meet with lawyers. If they dispute their verdicts, they will be allowed to appeal.

Neither indictee has any real cause for a hunger strike. Their protests are not about their rights but about their pride.

No one should be under any illusion: these strikes pose a test not only for their respective legal systems but for the societies of Croatia and Serbia.

We need to see through the hype and reject their attempts to undermine the law, show contempt for their alleged victims and, in the process, demean all those held in truly unjust captivity by truly repressive regimes.

Anna McTaggart is BIRN’s Croatia Project Manager. BIRN is Balkan Insight’s online publication.