Twenty Days

I will not discuss the legal absurdity which allows you to be sentenced for life for one act, or at least until a judge is found who is prepared to issue a punishment that was made up in someone's head, or about the other absurdity that a man who was declared and sentenced a war criminal by the enemy has been sentenced.

I will not discuss a verdict that condemns a soldier for not acting independently - without orders from above, a verdict which does not mention people, but rather only supplies that fell into the hands of the enemy, a verdict which mentions a "crucial battle" which was supposed to be won by 220 soldiers fighting against a few thousand from the other side.

I will not mention that no one other than the group around General Trifunovic was responsible for "defeat" and "material damage" during this wretched war. To be sure, a few generals and former ministers were sentenced by the militarily to pensions for life, but no one asked them how an army which was supposedly the fifth strongest military power in Europe collapsed like a tower of cards. I have not heard any of the zealous lovers of justice in the military courts sentence, in absentia, a single one of their former high-level officers who crossed over to "the other side" with his people and supplies.

This is obviously a condemnation of General Trifunovic's value system which considered human lives more valuable than "supplies" and absurd myths about "heroic sacrifice". People have rarely been mentioned during the war of the past three years. Maps have been drawn, cities destroyed and villages burned to the ground, while the victims have been anonymous... Indeed, there has been talk of peoples, but without individual tragedies and individual heroism. This is obviously the common policy of all participants in the war and every concern about people has been and will be publicly stigmatized and condemned.

I was especially shaken by General Trifunovic's isolation. During the sentencing I kept asking myself where his soldiers and their families - wives, children, parents - were. Don't they feel any obligation to lend support to a man who saved their lives? How is it possible that they did not organize to bear witness to the validity of General Trifunovic's decision with their presence in the courtroom and their lives. Each new trial must have been a warning sign that the General would be sentenced and obligated them to come together and inform the public about the true nature of the trial. Where were the mothers from the various committees that demanded the return of their sons at the very beginning of the war when it became necessary to defend a man who brought some other (!?) sons back from the war alive?

I do not accept the justification that "they could not". One soldier with a conscience or one thankful mother or father would have been enough and surely someone from the peace organizations or the numerous human rights committees would have offered them advice and practical help. All that remains is a terrible "we didn't want to!", or more likely an even more terrible "we didn't dare!". What remains is Fear.

The stability of this regime is based upon its subjects' fear of the omnipotence of the state and its institutions. The regime reminds us daily of the complete lack of protection for those who think freely or differently (most recently with the entrance of the police into Parliament, the "Borba" case, the sentencing of General Trifunovic). This nurturing of fear brings momentary peace and the obedience of the regime's subjects, but never the love and loyalty that all tyrants yearn after. This brings us to the key absurdity: tyrants expect the subjects to consciously sacrifice themselves - to give their lives - for the defense of a regime which they fear. This was also expected of Trifunovic's soldiers, whose civic courage has been destroyed to such an extent that it cannot be revived even by thankfulness for their own lives.

Forthcoming are grievances, probably new trials, but, knowing the nature of this regime, also years in prison for General Trifunovic. When these 11 years are divided by the number of soldiers from the Varazdin barracks, the general will have served 20 days for each life saved. I suggest to his soldiers that they at least send him their pictures, so that he can tape them to the wall of his cell and take one down every twenty days. I believe it will be easier for him if he knows exactly for whom and whose descendants he is spending time in prison.