ZAGREB, Dec 11 (Hina) - Franjo Tudjman is the first president of the independent and democratic Croatian state and the supreme commander of its armed forces. As head of state, he was the initiator of the organisation of the defence
and the creation of the Croatian army, and the chief political and military strategist in the establishment of a sovereign Croatia and its international recognition, and defence and victory in the Homeland War. He became the first president of the Republic of Croatia after the first multiparty elections in 1990. Franjo Tudjman was born in Veliko Trgovisce, in the northern Croatian region of Zagorje, on 14 May 1922. He attended elementary school in his birthplace, and secondary school in Zagreb from 1934 to 1941. He graduated from a senior military academy in Belgrade in 1957, and earned a doctor's degree in political sciences at the University of Zagreb in 1965. During secondary school, Tudjma
ZAGREB, Dec 11 (Hina) - Franjo Tudjman is the first president of the
independent and democratic Croatian state and the supreme
commander of its armed forces. As head of state, he was the
initiator of the organisation of the defence and the creation of the
Croatian army, and the chief political and military strategist in
the establishment of a sovereign Croatia and its international
recognition, and defence and victory in the Homeland War. He became
the first president of the Republic of Croatia after the first
multiparty elections in 1990.
Franjo Tudjman was born in Veliko Trgovisce, in the northern
Croatian region of Zagorje, on 14 May 1922. He attended elementary
school in his birthplace, and secondary school in Zagreb from 1934
to 1941. He graduated from a senior military academy in Belgrade in
1957, and earned a doctor's degree in political sciences at the
University of Zagreb in 1965.
During secondary school, Tudjman was part of a national democratic
movement, for which he was imprisoned in 1940. He was a member of the
anti-fascist movement since 1941. After the Second World War, he
was employed at the Ministry of National Defence's Personnel
Service, and Main Staff of the Yugoslav People's Army between 1945
and 1961. Despite being promoted to the rank of general in 1960,
Tudjman left active military service in 1961, and in Zagreb he
established the Institute for the History of the Labour Movement in
Croatia, staying in the manager's office until 1967.
As senior lecturer Tudjman taught "Socialist Revolution and
Contemporary National History of Croatia" at the Faculty of
Political Sciences in Zagreb until 1967. He was a representative in
the Parliament of the Socialist Republic of Croatia from 1965 to
1969, sub-editor and assistant editor-in-chief for the Military
Encyclopaedia, sub-editor for the Lexicography Institute
Encyclopaedia, member of the editor's office at "Vojno Delo"
magazine, editor-in-chief at "Putevi Revolucije" magazine,
member of the board of directors at the cultural association Matica
Hrvatska, and president of the Matica Hrvatska Commission for
Croatian History since 1970. Tudjman has been a member of the
Association of Croatian Writers since 1970 and of the Croatian PEN
Centre since 1987. He has been a member of the Croatian Academy of
Sciences and Arts since December 1992.
Tudjman was imprisoned after the suppression of the "Croatian
Spring" democracy movement in 1971. The communist authorities
labelled him the chief culprit for allegedly suspicious
connections with foreign factors and Croatian emigrants. Thanks to
the intervention of Croatian writer Miroslav Krleza with Josip Broz
Tito, Tudjman escaped long-term imprisonment. In 1972, he was
sentenced to two years in prison. The sentence was subsequently
reduced to nine months.
Tudjman was sentenced again in February 1981 to three years in
prison, and prohibited from public activity for five years on
account of an interviews given to Swedish and German televisions
and the French radio, in which he voiced his opinions on history and
advocated pluralist democracy.
He was imprisoned in Lepoglava between January 1982 and February
1983, when he was released for medical treatment. He was returned to
prison in May 1984, but was paroled in September due to a
deteriorating health condition.
In 1987, when he was restituted his passport after 17 years, Tudjman
travelled abroad, first to Canada and the United States of America,
and then to European countries. He gave lectures to Croatian
emigrants, promoting the notion of an all-round Croat
reconciliation and advocating the creation of a Croatian state.
In 1989, Tudjman established the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ)
political party, and became its president. Through the HDZ, he
formulated a national political programme which led to the national
and political mobilisation of the Croat people in Croatia, Bosnia-
Herzegovina, and the emigration. This was the basis for national
reconciliation and a strong resistance to the increasingly violent
assaults of Serb chauvinism and encroachment on Croatian
territories. Tudjman and the HDZ won the first free multiparty
elections in 1990; he was elected President of the Republic, and
formed the first democratic Croatian government. At presidential
elections in 1992 and 1997, the Croatian people re-elected him
President of the Republic to five-year terms.
Due to the growing pressure of Serbian hegemonism and Yugoslav
centralism after the first multiparty elections, Tudjman
accelerated his activities on organising the state and securing its
international recognition. Referring to the historical and
cultural identity of the Croatian people, he encountered special
understanding and continual support of Pope John Paul II.
At the time of Yugoslavia's disintegration, Tudjman conducted a
policy of negotiations on the state's confederal organisation or
the peaceful split-up of its republics. Tudjman used the policy,
which in Croatia also encountered disapproval, to lessen the
intensity of the imminent aggression by the Yugoslav People's Army
(JNA). When the aggression on Croatia started, he countered it also
through international negotiations and an increasingly organised
armed force.
After the declaration of Croatia's independence in 1991 and the
beginning of open aggression by Serbia and the JNA, it was Tudjman's
policy, balancing between Croatia's potential and unfavourable
international circumstances, that stopped the Serbian military
offensive on Croatian territory and countered international
factors which were extremely unfavourably disposed toward
Croatia's independence.
Following the declaration of Croatia's independence, Tudjman
skilfully avoided traps in diplomatic games around Croatia and by
1995 he organised the army and police forces to the extent which
enabled the country to on its own liberate the largest part of its
territory in operations "Flash" (May 1995) and "Storm" (August
1995).
The strength of the Croatian Army enabled the peaceful
reintegration of the Croatian Danube River region in January 1998,
completing the process of establishing sovereignty on the whole of
Croatia's territory recognised by international law, under
Tudjman's leadership.
In regard to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Tudjman conducted a policy
which was aimed at protecting the interests of the Croat people.
Relations between Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina went through
different phases under complex internal and international
circumstances. Eventually, the victories of the Croatian Army and
the Croatian Defence Council (HVO) following the liberation of
Croatia and a large part of Bosnia and Herzegovina from the Serb
aggressor led to the signing of the peace agreement and the
establishment of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. This
created a foundation for securing an equal constitutional and legal
position of the Croat people in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Dr. Franjo Tudjman, a Croatian officer, historian and statesman,
has written numerous books and papers (treatises) on topics from
the fields of military doctrine, history, political science and the
philosophy of history. His most important works are: Rat protiv
rata (War Against War), Zagreb, 1957; Stvaranje socijalističke
Jugoslavije (The Establishment of the Socialist Yugoslavia),
Zagreb, 1960; Okupacija i revolucija (Occupation and Revolution),
Zagreb, 1963; Velike ideje i mali narodi (Great Ideas and Small
Nations), Zagreb, 1969; Nacionalno pitanje u suvremenoj Evropi
(The National Issue In Modern Europe), Munich-Bacelona, 1981;
Državnost nacija - ključ mira Europe (The Statehood of Nations - The
Key to Peace in Europe), Lidingo, 1982; O povijesti rješavanja
hrvatskog pitanja i samoodređenja naroda u svijetu (On the History
of Resolving the Croatian Issue and the Self-Determination of World
Nations), Toronto, 1987; Stjepan Radić u hrvatskoj povijesti (The
Role of Stjepan Radic in Croatian History), Sudbury (Canada), 1988;
Bespuća povijesne zbiljnosti. Rasprava o povijesti i filozofiji
zlosilja, (Horrors of War. An Essay on the History and Philosophy of
Violence), Zagreb, 1989; Hrvatska u monarhističkoj Jugoslaviji
1918 - 1941 (Croatia In the Yugoslav Monarchy), Zagreb, 1993; S
vjerom u samostalnu Hrvatsku (Believing in Croatia's
Independence), Zagreb, 1995; Povijesna sudba naroda. Izabrani
tekstovi (The Historical Fate of the Nation. Selected Texts),
Zagreb, 1996; Horrors of War, New York, 1996; Das historische
Schicksal des Volkes, Bad Kissingen-Koeln, 1997.
Due to illness Franjo Tudjman was hospitalised at Zagreb's
"Dubrava" clinic. He died during the night between December 10 and
11, 1999.
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