News-from-the-media

06. 04. 2023.

Author: Jelena S. Spasic

Even while he was being killed, Simo Kljajic’s news was published in “Novi list”, and yet he is not being treated as a journalist killed in the war

UNS’s investigation on murdered journalists: it is not important at all what he was writing

Simo Kljajic was born, he lived and was murdered in Croatia. He was a journalist for 35 years. Even in the days when he was abducted, then liquidated, set on fire and buried with a larger group of murdered Serbs, the stories of the associate Simo Kljajic from Gospic appeared in Rijeka’s “Novi list”, in the autumn of 1991.

And despite everything, Simo Kljajic is not registered in Croatia as a journalist murdered in the war. Nor anywhere else, except in the Dossier on murdered and missing journalists and media workers since 1991 in the records of the Journalists’ Association of Serbia (UNS). Why? The answer may be guessed. But no one officially has given it.

UNS has already written extensively about how and why he was killed, and now we are dealing with the work of Simo Kljajic, who was a classic ‘local’, as journalists say in jargon.

Although he was a metal grinding machine worker by profession, he embarked on journalism at the age of 23 in 1956, when he became the correspondent from Lika of “Glas naroda”. As early as 1959, he became a regular member of the then Croatian Journalists’ Association (DNH), which automatically meant membership in the Journalists’ Association of Yugoslavia, according the copies of documents sent to us by the Croatian Journalists’ Association (HND) show. His membership was counted from the very beginning of his journalism in 1956, and he had to pay the arrears of membership fees.

In 1959, he was already at “Licke novine”, which he joined on March 15, 1958, and he collaborated part-time with “Borba”, “Glas rada”, “Revija”, “Vecernji vjesnik”, “Komunista”. He became the editor-in-chief on February 15, 1967, which was announced on the front page of this semi-monthly magazine. He was unanimously elected by the Board of Directors of the newspaper publishing and printing company “Licke novine” as the previous editor of the newspaper of the factory “Marko Oreskovic” in Licki Osik.

- Comrade Simo Kljajic spent six years as a journalist in “Licke novine”, and the last three years he worked in the information service in Licki Osik - it was written in the announcement.

In the end of 1975, DNH informs the editors of “Licke novine” that Simo Kljajic had more than 15 years of professional journalistic experience, and that was why he had the right of a self-governing agreement to be applied in his case that recognized his higher education because there was no higher education institution in SFRY that would verify the higher education journalism title. Accordingly, he was entitled to a higher salary coefficient.

As editor-in-chief, he “shut down” “Licke novine” in 1976 and started its successor – “Licki vjesnik”. As editor-in-chief, he approved by singing the last issue of “Licki vjesnik” on March 1, 1977, and he published the last text in it in the issue of June 1, 1989. Then he retired - on July 1, 1989, according to data from the DNH record card. However, he paid his membership fee until the end of 1989, and the one of the Solidarity Fund of the trade union until the end of 1990. Interestingly, it was found only in 1995 that he should be deleted from the records of the Solidarity Fund because, as it reads, he had not paid his membership fee since December 1990.

As a pensioner, Simo Kljajic was a correspondent for “Novi list” from Lika. And even in the war year is 1991. Interestingly, despite all the chaos at the time, although there was no official war yet, this year started with a Christmas greeting in “Novi list” to the Orthodox believers. As well as with the publication of photographs and news on the front page of January 7 that the old Orthodox custom of lighting Christmas trees in the open for the first time was revived in Rijeka.

The very next day, in the News section, on the most important front pages, there was Kljajic’s text “Heavily wounded at the barricades”, about the shooting of a man while he was driving to work. Barricades, as is well known, were the “trademark” of that region at the time. It also includes more and more frequent incidents, and Kljajic reported on January 11 that the inn of certain Bogdan Basta from Kosinje, whose nationality he did not indicate, had been demolished.

“Novi list” followed everything what was going on in Yugoslavia, and one of its main texts was also the famous March 9 under published the title “Belgrade looking like Bucharest”.

In the spring 1991, Yugoslavia had a regular population census, so Kljajic wrote on April 26 that it was boycotted in Serbian villages and hamlets because they did not get their census commissions and Serb registrars...

On Sunday, May 5, 1991, he wrote that last Friday a group of residents of Gospic, mostly Croats, prevented JNA soldiers from unloading a tank from a tow truck in the center of town, and that on Saturday thousands of citizens again peacefully protested “against the terror of Serbian extremists, the murder of MUP police officers, and for peace, freedom, and a democratic and whole Republic of Croatia...”

Reading Kljajic’s texts, we “scan” the situation on the ground, and four days later he reported that an explosive device was placed under the van of one Serb, while another Serb claimed that his summer house was robbed and demolished.

All the time, he also wrote ordinary, interesting and less important news on the “local”, back pages of “Novi List” …

The referendum that voted for the independence of Croatia was held on May 19, and the next day new reports from Kljajic arrived about the planting of explosive under the car of Serb Milan Novkovic and the burning of the summer house of Dusan Milojevic, also a Serb.

In the beginning of June, he wrote that “17 local communities” moved away from the municipality of Otocac, i.e. that the municipality complained to the Constitutional Court of Croatia. He reminded that on December 9, 1990, an SDS referendum was organized in 17 out of 40 local communities and the separation and annexation of the municipality of Titova Korenica was voted for.

In the middle of the month, he wrote about the “action of Martic’s men in Titova Korenica” under the title  “all-terrain vehicle of Industrogradnja seized”, and lthat the “Krajina militia”, i.e. armed “Martic’s men”, operated in that area...

On June 25, 1991, the Croatian Parliament voted for Croatia’s independence.

Kljajic was still sending news and smaller texts for “Novi list”. His texts were still published on the front pages. However, there was no more news about the destruction of Serb property. It is impossible to know now whether he sent it and it was not published or perhaps he did not send it at all.

In the issue of July 7, Kljajic’s short news was published that three workers kidnapped by the Martic’s men were released from prison in Knin, but not the three policemen from Gospic.

On July 21, he reported on the murder of a police officer from an ambush, and on July 29, on a terrorist attack in which one man was killed and which was “successfully repelled by the forces of MUP and special purpose units, in which no one was wounded”.

“Otocac pelted with mines” is the title of the text signed with Kljajic’s initials on July 30, while one day later a text arrived, signed with his full name – “131 mines fell on Otocac”. It read that the mines were being fired from the Serbian village of Podum, and that this was to make it known that somewhere there was the border of the so-called Krajina and the Republic of Croatia.

“Of course, it can easily be concluded that in the case of negotiations, the Republic of Croatia should be aware of the ‘border’ of Greater Serbia, which is so mercilessly attacked by terrorists, who do not choose where to fire their lethal weapons. The people are very scared, both Serbian and Croatian…”

On the same day, Kljajic’s news was also published that 17 people of Croatian nationality in fled to Gospic from some villages located in area of ​​the so-called Krajina, who had been exposed to severe harassment by the Martic’s men.

In the beginning of August, he reported on a mortar attack by terrorists on the Croatian village of Rajkovic, not far from Brinje. The report also read that there were great difficulties in the delivery of parcels and pensions in Gospic because 24 post offices did not work or worked intermittently, and terrorists stopped vehicles, robbed and seized them.

The last article he published in the column News, i.e. on the front pages of “Novi list”, was the one from August 27 under the title “Seized stores”. It read that certain shops of “Velepromet” in Otocac would be taken by the Serb Autonomous Region (SAO) Krajina and a new company would be made out of them.

As can be seen from the texts, he did not deviate in any way from the newspaper’s editorial policy.

However, the situation changed drastically on August 28, on the Orthodox feast day of Assumption of Mary, when JNA shelled Licki Osik. And shells fell on Gospic itself on August 30, which was the official start of the war in this small town.

It was also a turning point in Kljajic’s reporting for “Novi List”. On whose initiative - the journalist himself or the editorial staff, we cannot know either because all the actors are deceased. Not only Kljajic’s, but also the then editor of the column News Giancarlo Kravar, as well as the editor-in-chief Veljko Vicevic.

Since then, texts about all war-related, sensitive matters were signed by certain Pero Radic, whose name before that was mostly under the texts from the column Crime Desk, and most often those from Rijeka and its surroundings.

“Gospic is liberated” – “Novi list” reported on September 20, stating that the seven-day siege of the barracks “Stanko Opsenica” ended by surrender.

Simo Kljajic was still there, but with small, secondary matters - on the collection of financial aid for the families of murdered guardsmen, that Lika had done the harvest, that there was more drinking water. In the latter text, we learn that barely 30% of the residents remained in Gospic in the beginning of October.

One day before he went missing, Kljajic published the short news that the payment of benefits to the unemployed had begun.

And then on October 12, a little before noon, he left his apartment to go to a store about one hundred meters away to buy bread. He never came back.

However, one could not notice on the pages of “Novi list” that he went missing. Thus, on October 15, the news “Shipments delayed for days” was published, and one day later – “More than 200 workers dismissed”. There was also a short text “Tons of rotten meat”, where it was also written that maximum 45% of the population responded to the call to the citizens through the local radio to return to the town by October 6. It is clear when it is written.

“The beginning of October in the small town of Karlobag under the Velebit mountain range gives a real summer picture...”, it is written in Kljajic’s short text “More lively than in the summer”, published only on October 16, at the same time with the news that the pharmacy was heavily damaged in numerous mortar and similar attacks by Serbian terrorists and the occupying army and had to be moved to another place.

Interestingly, but in the same issue, there was a war reportage “Lika’s defiance beats the barracks”.

“Tuesday, October 15. Heavy rain in Karlobag, the sky opened. This is the border of the designated Serbian state...”, thus it begins, and it goes on to read that “Serbs are not history here, and neither are the present”.

Reporters also went to Gospic: “Fifty days of war in Gospic, the metropolis of Lika. Since the municipal assembly was attacked on August 30, six to seven thousand shells and grenades have been fired at the town”…

…  “In the operational headquarters for Lika, we met the three most responsible people, the Lika water carriers…” One of them was Tihomir Oreskovic, secretary of the operational headquarters.

Here we will remind you that Tihomir Oreskovic is one of the (only) three persons convicted for the massacre in Gospic, in which Simo Kljajic was also murdered, like other Serbian civilians.

It was also said in the same report that “military apartments and the apartments of many Serbs were abandoned”, and that those “whose apartments and houses had been destroyed were housed in abandoned ones” ...

A few pages further, there was the feuilleton “Sources of Great Serbian Aggression” in the same issue, in which Ilija Garasanin was also quoted.

A short article, published on October 17, writes how risky it is to go on some roads, while on the same page there is news that the printing press “Licke novine” in Gospic was burnt down in a shelling attack in mid-September!

On Friday, October 18, in the early morning hours, Simo Kljajic was in a group of kidnapped Serbs, who were transported from the barracks in Perusic to the locality of Lipova Glavica near Perusic. There, they were all killed with firearms by members of the Croatian army.

And while Oreskovic’s soldiers liquidated Kljajic and other Serbs, in Lika, Rijeka and beyond, his news was read and published that day Mesokombinat’s market was destroyed Gospic and waiting for reconstruction.

 

Perhaps a reportage of “Novi list”, with the title “Tigers in Gospic”, was made on the very same day and published on the next. Tihomir Oreskovic welcomed the reporters of this newspaper in Gospic. And ten kilometers away, their colleague Simo Kljajic received a bullet in the back of the head precisely on Oreskovic’s order.

Kljajic was long burned and buried not far from the Udbina military airport, where the corpses were transferred after the murder, when his article “How to sell cabbage” was published on October 21.

And finally, Kljajic’s last text they had “in store” was released on October 22 – “Potato digging with the rumble of mines”.

“Except for a few rain showers in the end of September and the beginning of October, the climatic conditions were favorable for farmers, who harvested potatoes...”. It is obvious when it was written.

From then until November 19, “Novi list” did not know what happened to their correspondent from Gospic. Only on that day and only on the 16^th page of the newspaper, in the Crime Section, the news was published that Simo Kljajic, a longtime associate of “Novi list” went missing.

And this was the end. Simo Kljajic did not exist for colleagues, journalists, media in Croatia. He had never existed.

And entire Gospic, Lika and beyond knew practically immediately what happened to Kljajic and more than 100 other Serbs, who were brutally murdered in October 1991. Nothing happened even when former members of the Croatian Army in the 1990s testified in the media about the crimes against those Serbs. Nothing happened even when in 2003 the verdict of the County Court in Rijeka was passed for the crime in Gospic, with the name of Simo Kljajic among the victims. Nothing happened even when it was confirmed by the Supreme Court of Croatia in 2004. Nothing happened to date.

At the entrance to the building of the Croatian Journalists’ Association in Zagreb, there is a marble plaque with the names of 14 Croatian journalists and technicians who died in the Homeland War. HND installed it in 1994. Of course, Simo Kljajic’s name is not there, nor many others. And that is somewhat understandable for 1994. However, we are now in the year 2023. And nothing has changed.

And while our colleagues from HND sent us all copies of the documents about Kljajic right away, we were left without an answer after we asked them several times why his name was not on the plaque or on any list of murdered journalists.

Sime Kljajic’s name is not on any other list of murdered and missing journalists in international organizations that dealt with this subject.

And a man who was guilty of nothing but killed like a dog at least deserved this little. And he has not been decently buried to date. However, he was a journalist until the very last moment, for 35 years.