SLOBODNA DALMACIJA, FEBRUARY 28, 2005

MITTERRAND'S GENDARMES TRUMPED UP THE CHARGES AGAINST GOTOVINA

(trans. by I.A. @ VoC)

THE GOVERNMENT’S HOAX – My court files are clean since I won the appeal against my 5-year conditional sentence from January 2003, which was trumped up against me during a rigged process. Ante and I jointly have committed no crime whatsoever. As far as he’s concerned, the explanation probably lays in a need to create or exaggerate trivial tales so that they appear as “crimes,” which is a classical method used by political police in France.

Author: Davor Ivankovic

Explain your current status – are you a commendable national hero, a fugitive, a convicted criminal, the author of the book that reveals backstage internal political conflicts in France or a French intelligence agent not being allowed to tell everything about your adventurous life?

- For some of my compatriots probably I’m a hero, but much more a victim. I was a fugitive for more than 14 years. Certainly, I wasn’t a “convicted criminal” except in the dreams of my enemies and lower-level police agencies.  

I wrote the book Gibier d’état (The State’s big haul) published in 2002 so to tell the truth to the wider public about my 14 years runaway into which I was forced by the clean angels of socialism who have been in power since 1981. Justifiably, this book hasn’t been the subject of any lawsuit. While my adversaries who experienced KO (knock-out) went mad. Was I a “French spy?” We need to use cautiously that term that’s not inscribed on one’s visit card. In serving the homeland through confidential missions, it is forbidden to reveal them to a wider public. However, I’m currently writing several stories about that kind of duty…

The days together

When and how did you become a friend and a partner with the Croat Ante Gotovina; you spent a great part of your life together and shared with him the fate. Do you consider yourself as a French patriot and how did Gotovina help and cooperate in this regard?

- I met Ante Gotovina in 1974 in Pau during training for operational parachutists – these are elite parachutists, performing free-falls on a high altitude. He came from 2. REP, the famous [French Foreign] Legion paratrooper Regiment, and he was the only legionnaire to have participated in that difficult training, while other participants came from all other paratrooper units. I was in charge of making a documentary on free-fall commando parachutists for the French television and the military documentation service.

I contributed with my personal experience in the domain of team jumps, given that I went through the training in the US and won the [Parachuting Military] World Championship in this specialty in Taftu, California, at the end of 1968, as a member of the American team.

At that time, the French were only discovering those techniques. Ante proved to be one of the best parachutists at the training at that time and we became really close. Our effectiveness was highly valued. We perfectly complemented each other in operations. We had always acted within a specified framework and in the interest of the state. He proved to be an extraordinarily courageous and virtuous man of action.

A hoax against a hero

The Croatian public is confused - according to some media, the national hero Ante Gotovina was convicted several times in France for the crimes that include kidnapping, robbery, and extortion… Your name is being mentioned in connection with those criminal acts. Some media, however, qualify them as the trumped-up indictments issued by the French political fraction, the former Mitterrand’s one, the left?

- I’m not familiar with the current court file records assigned to him. They were completely clean, when we formed our team, before the communists and socialists clung onto power with their will to ‘cut off the heads…’  Mitterrand wasn’t among the mild at that, muddled with power that he miraculously got.  

My court files are still clean since I won the appeal against my 5-year conditional sentence from January 2003, which was trumped up against me during a scandalously rigged process.

Ante and I jointly have committed no crime whatsoever. As far as Ante is concerned, the explanation probably lays in a need to create or exaggerate the trivial tales so that they appear as “crimes,” which is a classical method used by political police. That method had already been used against us at the beginning of our joint flee when we had been accused, without a single proof, for the attack on the military camp (military base Foix in Ariège) and seizing the weapon for its later use in the “coup d'état.”

In my opinion, even though Mitterrand and his “gang” are gone, the same habits and dirty works are going on… 

Many French police agencies haven’t been famous for their inspection of the received “warrants for arrest.” Hence, it’s enough to pile them up, without an iota of truth to them, so to cause harm and create “criminal” reputation.

According to some media articles, you and Gotovina were part of semi-official secret organization that was collecting information on criminal acts by Mitterrand’s left, whose special mission included also an inquiry into, and kidnapping of, the jeweller Solomon who was suspected of “money laundering” for Mitterrand. Mitterrand accused you and your colleagues of preparing the right-wing’s “coup d’état” against his socialist regime.

- We were truly held in high respect for our effectiveness in completing the missions we were assigned to, as well as for our absolute discretion.

As for the mentioned Henri Solomon, I don’t know anything about that suspicious affair. That dossier which was exploited by “certain” gendarmes muddled with new power was primarily used as to discredit us in the eyes of our many friends. Later it was used as a reason for many requests for the extradition through diplomatic channels, or through Interpol once they gave up their search for me abroad after many years.

Those gendarmes are the same ones who were exposed in the scandals such as the Irish case of the “'Vincennes Three's" or also in the “Engrand’s case” from the same period. Hence, without refraining from subsequent forgery of the evidence in the first case, or from protecting the gangsters in the latter, they trumped up the dossiers with no remorse. The gendarmes of great trust…

The "Allende Syndrome," panic attacks and fear of a more violent response by the right-wing (which was in fact very subservient) caused them a presentiment of horrible things to come. Mitterrand feared for his life.

In order to curry his favour, they offered him a bogus conspiracy that will soon develop into the project of elimination of the president himself. The executor is, “of course,” me, selected as the Number 1, who quickly becomes the killer with an army of professionals ready for everything, among whom is also Ante.

All this without a single proof, but it enables the Presidency to justify a significant portion of their expenditures. Mitterrand surrounds himself with a guard comprising 92 gendarmes…. There were unlimited funds made available to them.

I stress that our opponents have never been able to charge us with a single real or concrete thing. Actually, they have never been able to find out which “serious tasks” our team fulfilled!

I didn’t know enough about Mitterrand as to know if he was engaged in illegal arms trade or something else. But he needed the money so that he and “his families,” and not to mention the concubines, live in luxury.   

All these people lived without supervision and illegally at the expense of the Republic. Certainly, Mitterrand wasn’t giving his own money to the socialist party; Mitterrand had never had the money with him to pay for a single coffee to this courtesans.

Fake conspiracy against the State

How do you explain the fact that, after the opposition and former communist regime came into power in Croatia (in 2000), Ante Gotovina became a suspect as a leader of the right-wing’s preparation of the “coup d’état” against that regime. Did the same thing, therefore, happened to Gotovina, so that he has to run away from political persecution, first, from the French cell formed by Mitterrand, and then from those in Croatia's government?

- It seems that the former communists in Croatia got impressed by a genius idea: fake conspiracy against the state. The new government sacrificed him in cold blood, in the same way as that of France a long time ago, because they couldn’t tolerate the presence of an authentic hero, who can play an important role in the future of the new, independent Croatia. In the communist era he’d probably have had a fatal “accident.”

Are the indictments and verdicts, the documents now published in the Croatian media, factual at all, or forged? Is it possible also in France to fabricate political processes; explain the French political culture in which such internal political conflicts are barely spoken or written about? 

- Of course, we were the victims of political prosecution. There’s nothing else about it. The French judges are not any better or less impartial than others. There have always been the black sheep and mafia there. For example, those who confuse justice and politics.

Political battles in France are fought under cover but they are lethal. It was a great disappointment for me to realise the scope of corruption under the socialists, which makes it difficult today to win justice.

There’s a political police in France, the only one in Europe, called Renseignements Generaux. This police, who eavesdrops all the rumours, fabricates, for example, a nice bandit reputation for you when they find it necessary.

Secret service on a hunt

Do you think that the French secret service (DGSE) is now actively involved in the search for the fugitive general Gotovina, as the Croatian president Mesic declares.

- It cannot surprise me very much that the DGSE or any other French service joined the hunt for general Ante Gotovina! There’s no one now to say something in his defence.

If you’re an agent, a young agent who knows nothing about the real story, you will believe what’s served to you. Besides, there’s also the “prize…”

You wrote in your book Gibier d’état that you were proud of your Croatian friend Ante Gotovina and his life, warfare and fate, and that he successfully cooperated also with the Americans – explain what it actually means?

- Of course, I was proud to see that my friend Ante proved his worth to the whole world during that difficult war full of the horror like all wars.  When I talk about the Americans and a good cooperation with them, it actually states that they recognized general Gotovina, a hero of the struggle for independence, for and unquestionable value.

In his last conclusive military offensive he had at least their technical support. Nothing less than satellite photos of enemy positions.

What is unbelievable is to see them joining now the hunt for him. That change of attitude comes from political and not military leaders.

The homeland sells its general as merchandise

Since you know the character of Ante Gotovina, having often shared with him his fate, do you think he will ever surrender to The Hague’s tribunal, that is, under which conditions he might appear before The Hague’s tribunal?

- Of course I knew Ante Gotovina, but it’s not mine to say what his final choice will be.

I don’t think he wishes to be treated as a criminal by the men who never risked their life, who are disguised into righteous men and zealously talk about things they know nothing about. He knows well that they won’t listen to him and that again he will be accused in advance. Actually, in order to justify its existence, that court needs to prove to the world, which would have to admire it, that it doesn’t prosecute only the Serbs.

Besides, he already experienced a betrayal while serving in France.

The fact that his homeland, which exists thanks to the men like him and the sacrifice by the victims fallen for its independence, sells him as merchandise to a court looking for the “clients” is probably a difficult thing for him.

If he’s to be tried, then all the presidents (military commanders-in-chief), political leaders who pushed for war, all generals commanding the units in operations, should be tried. It’s enough to call to mind Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc., and all the “incidents” that happened, and are still happening.

It’s all deeply disturbing and unhealthy. If general Ante Gotovina is to be tried, let Croatian people to try him.  

Ante couldn’t fight in the [Croatian] war and commit the crimes in France

Although he was [allegedly] convicted three times [in French courts], Ante Gotovina held meetings with the representatives of French civil and military authorities, and finally he had his French passport renewed without any difficulty only two months before The Hague’s tribunal raised the indictment against him?

That simply shows that there was no any hostility from his civil and military collocutors. Those three verdicts you mention disturb me. What kind of verdicts is it about? For which acts? In which years? 

I left France with Ante in 1981, and agreed with his decision to join Croatia’s struggle for independence, I believe, in 1991. He couldn’t fight the war in Croatia and commit the crimes in France, and especially not with me because I was then in South America. What I know is that the gendarmes touched upon his subject through the Solomon affair that was manipulated in many ways.  That dossier served for issuing the warrants for arrest within the state and abroad, for activating Interpol, for the requests for extradition, etc…

During those events Ante wasn’t in France. It’s just about abnormal to be guilty, but it seems not to be unexpected in France.

In fact the spoiled policemen or gendarmes fabricated that dossier so that the whole world hunts down their target. The dossiers were not meant to come on the desk of an impartial judge.

Osvrt na novu knjigu (Izdavač i drugi)

NIKAD SE NE ĆE PONOVITI VUKOVAR

Louise L. Lambrichs u izdanju Philippe Rey

Siječanj 2005

http://www.philippe-rey.fr/maison.htm

Izdavačka kuća Philippe Rey

Dragi prijatelji,

Siječnja 2005 naša izdavačka kuća načela je polje francuske književnosti s glavnim djelom Louise L. Lambrichs, Nikad ne ćemo vidjeti Vukovar (Nous ne verrons jamais Vukovar)[i] (objavljeno 7. siječnja).

Ima petnaestak godina otkako je pred našim vratima započeo strašan rat. Srbija, ponesena opetovanom paranoičnom idelologijom iz svoje povijesti, pokrenula je  protiv Hrvatske, potom Bosne i nakoncu Kosova rat bez milosti – osvajački rat ali ujedno i rat popraćen deportacijama i masovnim istrjebljivanjem, što je dovelo do genocida nad jednim dijelom bosanskog stanovništva. Usred Europe.

Nikad više ne ćemo vidjeti Vukovar knjiga je autorice koja se cijelim svojim bićem dala na razumijevanje onoga što se odigralo i još uvijek se odigrava na Balkanu. Čita se strastveno poput kakve istrage, gdje se, u posve originalnoj formi, oblikuje jedno drugačije iščitivanje suvremene povijesti, protivno lažima države, obmanama, zaslijepljenosti i zajedničkom kriminalu koji pothranjuje službene mitove kojih se je tako teško odreći. Pohvalna lektira, zato što je pravedna. Lektira koja će ostaviti traga.

Ta je knjiga objavljena u partnerstvu sa Inventaire/Invention, stubom [multimedijskim] književnog stvaralaštva, koji je otvorio aktivnu informativnu stranicu namijenjenu prikupljanju svih osvrta na knjigu od Louise L. Lambrichs, kojih će sigurno biti puno: www.inventaire-invention.com/vukovar.htm

U prvom polugodištu izlaze također dva strana romana: Anna i Svjetlo (Anna et la Lumière), drugi roman mladog 28-godišnjeg američkog autora Davida Czuchlewski (izlazi 14. siječnja), te Miris žene (Parfum de femme) od Giovannia Arpino (izlazi 4. ožujka), talijanski roman koji je napisan šezdesetih godina,  iz kojega je uzet scenarij istoimenog glasovitog fima Dinoa Risi (s nezaboravnim Vittoriom Gassmanom). Taj sjajni roman nije nikad do sada bio preveden na francuski.

U veljači, objavit ćemo prvu knjigu Mariona Van Rethengema, Preživjeli (Les Rescapés). Ovo vrlo dirljivo djelo moglo bi biti zbirka pripovijesti da ne govori o sudbinama različitih stvarnih osoba dvadesetog stoljeća. Sadrži istinite pripovijesti tih neznanaca, žrtava ili heroja, sudionika ili svjedoka, uzetih iz vrtloga velike drame, hlapnuvši, bez da su to htjeli, u srce povijesti. Toliko znakovitih putanja koje nas podsjećaju na našu zajediničku sudbinu. Jer, to što preživjeli svjedoče, od Vukovara do Havane, Phnom Penha u Santiagu preko Brazzavillea, Kabula ili Neuilly-sur-Marne, dio je nas samih. To je naš svijet i naše vrijeme. Hvala na pažnji koju pridajete našoj mladoj izdavačkoj kući, i uživajte u čitanju.

Philippe Rey

………………………………………..

Inventaire/Invention [osvrt na knjigu]

(…)

Nikad ne ćemo vidjeti Vukovar je knjiga koja će obilježiti vrijeme. Knjiga autorice koja se cijelim bićem založila da shvati što se odigralo i još uvijek odigrava na Balkanu. Cijela knjiga je usmjerena na ažuriranje, ili neki će reći na ekshumaciju, kolektivnog demantija vezanog za službenu povijest naroda.  Ne evocira li službena povijest « rat plemena » ? Nasuprot tomu, autorica ukazuje na poraznu ideologiju etničkog čiščenja koja se kultivira u Srbiji od 19. stoljeća. A ne slavi li službena povijest « herojsku hrabrost srpskog naroda za vrijeme drugog svjetskog rata » ? Autorica otkriva, i mi s njom, banalnosti jedne kolaboracionističke države s nacističkim okupatorima koja je na svoj način sudjelovala u eksterminaciji Židova. Ne glorificira li službena povijest  velikodušnost Francuske za vrijeme rata u bivšoj Jugoslaviji ? Autorica nam pokazuje, nasuprot tome, sudjelovanje u kriminalu s agresorom, kojemu se danas sudi za genocid. P. C.

http://www.inventaire-invention.com/vukovar.htm

(….)

[1] «Nikad se  ne će ponoviti Vukovar» ili «Nikad ne ćemo vidjeti Vukovar» (napomena pr.)

Prijevod (neovlašten) I.A.,  7. veljače 2005.

 ...............................

Textes originales

http://www.philippe-rey.fr/maison.htm

Les éditions Philippe Rey

Chers amis,

Janvier 2005 voit notre maison aborder le domaine de la littérature française avec un ouvrage fondamental de Louise L. Lambrichs, Nous ne verrons jamais Vukovar (paru le 7 janvier).

Il y a une quinzaine d’années, débutait à notre porte une guerre effroyable. La Serbie, portée par une idéologie paranoïaque récurrente dans son histoire, livrait à la Croatie, puis à la Bosnie et enfin au Kosovo une guerre sans merci : guerre de conquête mais tout autant guerre de déportation et d’extermination de masse qui aboutit au génocide d’une partie du peuple bosniaque. Au cœur de l’Europe.

Nous ne verrons jamais Vukovar est un livre d’écrivain engagé de tout son être dans la compréhension de ce qui s’est joué et se joue encore dans les Balkans. Il se lit comme une enquête passionnante où, sous une forme profondément originale, prend corps une autre lecture de l’histoire contemporaine, à rebours des mensonges d’État, trucages, aveuglements et complicités criminelles qui alimentent les légendes officielles dont il est si difficile de se détacher. Une lecture salutaire, parce qu’elle est juste. Une lecture qui marquera.

Ce livre est publié en partenariat avec Inventaire/Invention, pôle [multimédia] de création littéraire, qui a créé sur son site une page d’information continue destinée à recueillir toutes les réactions (et elles seront certainement nombreuses) au livre de Louise L. Lambrichs : www.inventaire-invention.com/vukovar.htm  

Notre premier semestre verra aussi la parution de deux romans étrangers : Anna et la Lumière, deuxième roman d’un jeune auteur américain de 28 ans, David Czuchlewski (parution le 14 janvier), et Parfum de femme de Giovanni Arpino (parution le 4 mars), roman italien écrit dans les années soixante, dont a été tiré le scénario du célèbre film éponyme de Dino Risi (avec un inoubliable Vittorio Gassman). Ce magnifique roman n’avait jusqu’ici jamais été traduit en français.

En février, nous publierons le premier livre de Marion Van Renterghem, Les Rescapés. Cet ouvrage très émouvant pourrait être un recueil de nouvelles s’il ne racontait les destins de différents personnages réels, passants du XXe siècle. Il contient le roman vrai de ces inconnus, victimes ou héros, acteurs ou témoins, le plus souvent déracinés, pris dans la tourmente d’un grand drame, happés sans le vouloir au cœur de l’Histoire. Autant de traversées singulières qui nous rappellent notre destin collectif. Car de Vukovar à La Havane, de Phnom Penh à Santiago en passant par Brazzaville, Kaboul ou Neuilly-sur-Marne, c’est une part de nous-mêmes que les rescapés nous racontent. Ils sont notre monde et notre temps.

Merci de l’attention que vous portez à notre jeune maison, et bonne lecture.

Philippe Rey

………………………………………………….

Inventaire/Invention

(…)

Nous ne verrons jamais Vukovar est un livre qui fera date. Un livre d'écrivain engagé de tout son être dans la compréhension de ce qui s'est joué et se joue encore dans les Balkans. Un livre tout entier tourné vers la mise au jour, on pourrait dire l'exhumation, de dénis collectifs liés à l'histoire officielle des peuples. L'histoire officielle évoque-t-elle une « guerre tribale » ? L'auteur pointe au contraire les ravages de l'idéologie du nettoyage ethnique cultivée en Serbie depuis le 19 è siècle ; l'histoire officielle célèbre-t-elle « le courage héroïque du peuple serbe pendant la deuxième guerre mondiale » ? L'auteur découvre, et nous avec elle, la banalité d'un état collaborant avec l'occupant nazi et participant à sa manière à l'extermination des Juifs. L'histoire officielle glorifie-t-elle la générosité de la France pendant la guerre en ex-Yougoslavie ? L'auteur nous montre au contraire une complicité criminelle avec l'agresseur, jugé aujourd'hui pour génocide.

(…)

P. C. 

http://www.inventaire-invention.com/vukovar.htm

LE MONDE, SRIJEDA, 9. SVIBNJA 1995, Str. 10.

Rijetko će neka vojna operacija u bivšoj Jugoslaviji biti tako ispitivana do najmanjih detalja

Međunarodni promatrači demantiraju optužbe Organizacije UN protiv Hrvatske vojske

Diplomati, novinari i pripadnici Crvenog Križa vode istragu o ponašanju vojske Zagreba

Novinari, pripadnici Visokog komesarijata Ujedinjenih nacija za izbjeglice (Haut-Commissariat des Nations unies pour les réfugiés, HCR) i Crvenog Križa detaljno