The politics of hunger strikes

08/12/2006

It put off detaining him, then detained him, then freed him after he threatened suicide by self-starvation. Croatian bloggers assess the judiciary's handling of the Branimir Glavas case.

By Balkanblogs for Southeast European Times – 08/12/06

Branimir Glavas (centre) waves to supporters after a hunger strike lasting more than a month. The 50-year-old politician, under indictment for his alleged role in war crimes, was expelled from Croatia's ruling HDZ party after a row with Prime Minister Ivo Sanader. [Getty Images]

Over the past week, indicted parliament member Branimir Glavas has again become a topic of discussion among Croatian bloggers. Glavas is under indictment for his alleged role in war crimes committed against Serb civilians in Osijek, Croatia in 1991. He recently was freed from custody for health reasons, following a 37-day hunger strike.

Glavas was able to do what many just dream about: he united all of Croatia, writes Croatian Nauseous News.

"From the left to the right, everybody agrees on one thing: the Croatian judiciary is catastrophic. The only difference is that some think the judiciary's decision to place Glavas in custody was disastrous, while the others say that it acted disastrously because it hadn't detained Glavas in time or because it let him go again."

With citizens' trust at its nadir, Prime Minister Ivo Sanader should seize the moment and overhaul the judicial system, the blog suggests -- expressing doubt, however, that this is likely to happen.

Jajo at Hrvatske biljeske ponders the impact on future legal cases.

"When it comes to this story one thing is clear: there are more questions then answers," he writes. "One of the first questions that came to my mind is whether the decision of the investigative magistrate represents a dangerous precedent that could be used by all future detainees who are not satisfied. And of course, there is the question whether to yield under their pressure too, or to keep them in custody even if they could die."

Writing at pollitika, Cika Velja compares Glavas to Serbian ultra nationalist politician Vojislav Seselj, who reportedly is close to death after a hunger strike at The Hague.

"Glavas and Seselj were public proponents of radical behaviour towards those that they saw as their enemies," he writes. "They had the opportunity to commit the crimes they have been accused of. Whether they really did commit these crimes (or are perhaps responsible in some other way) is a secondary issue at the moment, especially for their supporters (and for their opponents too)."

"Both are using hunger strikes and the judicial process, as well as the crimes commited, to gain political influence. Both want to position themselves in the long term as political icons of a certain unsatisfied group of people, and in that way ensure their importance. There is no substantial difference between the two of them and they demontrated that with this strike. Only that unsatisfied group of people can not see this. Those are the people who classify crimes into 'ours' and 'theirs', Cika Velja concludes.