Balkan Idols: Religion and Nationalism in Yugoslav States

and walking in public with religious insignia but still refrained from further
massive marches. Instead he split his activists into smaller groups.
11. Centralni komitet Saveza komunista Hrvatske (Central Committee of the
League of Communists of Croatia), “Program idejno-političke akcije Saveza komunista
Hrvatske u ostvarivanju programskih načela u odnosu prema religiji,
provodjenju ustavnih opredjeljenja o slobodi vjeroispovijesti i borbi protiv sektasˇtva,
klerikalizma i kleronacionalizma” (A program of ideological-political action
of the League of Communists of Croatia aimed at achieving application of
the programmatic principles concerning religion, constitutional norms on religious
liberty, and the struggle against sectarianism, clericalism and cleronationalism)
(Zagreb, 10 June 1985); and Komisija za statutarna pitanja (Commission
for Questions of the Statute), “Neka stutarna pitanja odnosa komunista prema
religiji i vjerskim obredima” (Some questions of the statute regarding attitudes
of communists toward religion and religious practices) (Zagreb, 10 June 1985).
12. Vijesnik, 25 April 1987.
13. Vijesnik, 22 January 1983.
14. Ibid.
15. Jug Grizelj, column in the Slobodna Dalmacija, 27 April 1985.
16. According to an incomplete list of political prisoners in Yugoslavia released
by an international human rights group, in the period from March 1973
to October 1985, 527 persons were jailed for various forms of antiregime political
activity, though some other sources estimated that 2,208 people had been
charged with political offenses between 1980 and 1983 alone. Most of those
sentenced were ethnic Albanian separatists arrested in the aftermath of the 1981
Albanian rebellion in the province of Kosovo. Religion in Communist Lands 15, 3
(winter 1987), p. 64.
17. Ibid., p. 65.
18. Most of these conscientious objectors were Jehovah’s Witnesses, Nazarenes,
and Seventh-Day Adventists. See Religion in Communist Lands 15, 3, p. 333.
19. In my personal experience, pressure on local administration to grant all
demands for sacred construction, with an increase of state funding for the preservation
of sacred heritage, and establishing friendly communications with
clergy was the principal task of the commissions for relations with religious
communities in the 1980s.
20. Peričić and S ˇ kvorčević, Trinaest stoljeća krsˇčanstva u Hrvata, p. 22.
21. See Franić, Bit ćete mi svijedoci, pp. 271–275.
22. On 22 January 1986 in the Split city hall, the Archbishop Franić said:
“As we see that democratic processes in our society are making progress, we all
realize that a chance is given to us by God, to create a better and more humane
society in this Balkan region—a more humane and more civilized society than
we have ever had here before in history. In this newly emerging society, in the
foreseeable future, I believe, every individual, of any religious or ethnic background,
will be given an equal opportunity, and free access to economic, cultural,
and social goods as well as public offices and services, depending on each individual’s
own abilities, willingness to work and professional knowledge, humane
characteristics, and patriotic love toward the concrete [i.e., socialist-communist]
society. In such a free and just society, there will be no need for exploiting religion
for political purposes, and no reason for the consecration of politics. I believe as
a Christian that this society in which we all live is not created by the devil but
by God, and God takes care of it. A tolerant dialogue among all of us is needed
to achieve a consensus about what is freedom, what is truth, what is justice,
284 notes to pages 135–137