Keepers of Pandora's Box

On June 25, a decade ago, the Slovenian Parliament adopted the act of independence on the basis of a plebiscite (December 1990). "Dreams are allowed today, tomorrow is a new day" said then (and now) the current president of Slovenia, Milan Kučan, in Ljubljana, while a group of territorialists welcomed the removal of the Yugoslav flag and the raising of the Slovenian flag. The dignitaries and journalists then retreated to Cankar's home for a feast.

That same night, events began to unfold like lightning; early in the morning the JNA units headed for the border crossings. Slovenia met them with barricades, which were destroyed by tanks and air strikes. The armored personnel carriers of the JNA did not even spare the civilian vehicles that the patriotic Slovenians blocked their way, and the transmitters of the national radio and television were also targeted, as they portrayed the units of the federal army as "aggressors and occupiers". Sporadic fighting lasted ten days, and everything ended with the assistance of the EU Troika in Brioni, where an agreement was reached on a three-month moratorium. Then the Presidency of the SFRY (Janez Drnovšek, Stipe Mesić, Bora Jović and others) decided with the votes of the representatives of Belgrade and Ljubljana that the JNA should withdraw from Slovenia. It was the official end of Yugoslavia and the beginning of bloody wars that have not ended on the territory of the former state to this day.

As for Slovenia, it is proud of its baptism of fire, which local historians call the ten-day war "For Slovenia". Monuments and stećaks were erected in that name, and Slovenia was not interested in all subsequent wars, except in the domain of reselling weapons (despite the ban) to the former "brothers in the south" and solving the problem of invading refugees.

THANKS I THANK YOU: The goal of all political options, both left-wing (Kučan, Drnovšek) and right-wing (Janša, Peterle), is for Slovenia to remain recognized as a "success story" not only in the Balkans, but in Europe and the world. That's why, on this occasion, the main ten-year-old stars were carefully selected - Alois Mock, Dietrich Genscher and Gianni de Michelis (unrecognizably thin), at that time the ministers of foreign affairs of the leading European countries. They were invited because, as Slovenian Minister of Foreign Affairs Dimitrije Rupel said, they understood Slovenia's need to separate from the SFRY and helped it in the most difficult moment. In them, Slovenian politics sees midwives responsible for the happy birth of a new state.

Truth be told, Gianni de Mikelis' actions at the time were greeted with much bitterness in Slovenia in 1991, because the Italian foreign minister was not particularly advocating for Slovenian statehood. It is interesting that De Michelis remained consistent and now again, evoking memories of the last days of the SFRY, reminded that such a tragic outcome was the result of selfishness and cynicism. He remembered the meeting in Brussels after the return of Jacques Delors from Belgrade, when the proposal was dropped that Europe should collect four billion dollars and give it "on a plate" to Ante Marković in order to save the matter. European statesmen rejected the proposal - it was too expensive for them, "and later the bloody disintegration of Yugoslavia cost them much more than those four billion dollars" - concludes De Michelis. Where did the cynical De Michelis come from in the company of Mock and Gensher, who remember only the Yugoslav tanks in the attack on Slovenia from the former SFRY?

The capital's evil tongues claim that the Italian was some kind of "quick", invited so that budding intellectuals and rajas would not wonder why there is no other politician from the wider world on such a big holiday in Ljubljana? (And if nobody really has time, then at least the neighbors - Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Italy?) This is how the once great Gianni played a modest role in breaking the Germanic trinity - Genscher, Mock, Schröder.

The main guest of the big state landing was, of course, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, head and chin. Admittedly, like the aforementioned three, the hosts did not fly him in helicopters from celebration to celebration organized by Drnovšek's LDS all over Slovenia, but despite the busy schedule, he walked through old Ljubljana and chased away the heat by stopping by the garden with Rupel and Drnovšek for a cold beer. Meanwhile, in the same place as ten years ago, a scene was staged, huge red and green rectangles across the empty parking lot on Republic Square, dotted with sand and artificial sunflowers. A lectern was set up, and the president of Slovenia, Milan Kučan, was the first to climb it before Schröder.

The announcement of Schroeder's address to the Slovenian people caused some dilemmas and bad associations, because German from the speakers here did not mean anything good in the past. Some liberal commentators saw in Schröder's performance a confirmation of Slovenia's "vassal relationship" to Germany, while partisan generals and fighters were foaming at the mouth as the representative of the country against whose occupation they fought in their youth was chosen as the essence of the celebration. There were ideas that we should host (albeit compromised) Kohl rather than Schröder (since the German Social Democrats were not in favor of Slovenia's independence ten years ago, while then Chancellor Kohl was), but it was agreed that Germany played a key role in the independence process. The stormy polemics about the German language in the middle of Ljubljana and the first decade of independence were concluded by abandoning the accepted idea that Schröder should speak only at the ceremonial session in the parliament, so as not to offend him.

And there is Schröder in his mother tongue behind the lectern, after Kučan. Schröder praised Slovenia, hinted that it is almost not in the two exclusive European clubs, the EU and NATO, but he did not fail to remind that other nations from the south-east of Europe have always been part of Europe, i.e. that it is wrong to talk about the expansion of Europe. because the said peoples belonged to that area even when they were forbidden to be part of free Europe...

Then - something like a landing, a play in ten pretentiously monumental sequences, inspired by Grohar's famous painting "The Sower" from the beginning of the last century. The landing had a relatively modest number of participants in a huge area, I guess so as not to be completely associated with May 25. Impression? After the landing, those who went to eat and drink at the invitation of President Kučan (officials, journalists, diplomats) quickly fell in love with Broz's taste. Others were amazed that this was all that had been prepared for Schroeder and ten years, for so much spent taxpayers' money. And as for Shredder, he honestly paid the guild for the ancient sins of his countrymen - he helplessly watched and listened to "The Sower". In Slovenian.

MEMORIES DICTATE THE WINNERS: On the occasion of the celebration of independence, the media in Slovenia have been evoking memories of the recent, heroic past for days. Documentaries, celebrations, interviews... The elan in proving the quality of "war memories" is responsible for the fact that everything and anything appeared in the newspapers, including what was hidden until now because it was not good for the image of "attacked Slovenia". Let's say - a photojournalist's confession of how they cursed JNA officers, sending them all "to Serbia" ("Večer" in Maribor), or a photo of guys throwing Molotov cocktails at JNA trucks in Gornja Radgona under their own direction. Perhaps on the occasion of one of the next anniversaries, it will be known how much the action of these heroes affected the multiplication of holes from tank shells in the houses in the city that suffered the most from the JNA during the ten days of fighting (a monument to the resistance to the occupying JNA units was recently discovered).

This time, the analysts' suspicions were put aside. The black-and-white picture of the ten-day Slovenian war is corrected by rare testimonies, such as the memories of General Konrad Kolšek (then the commander of the Fifth Army District based in Zagreb, dismissed because "he was not decisive enough"). Kolshek perfectly timed the time to "tell his ungrateful compatriots". (After Zagreb, he retired to Belgrade, only to return to Slovenia after a few years and suffer harassment for years as a former officer of the JNA; he had to fight for all his rights long and arduously in court.) In the midst of the pre-holiday euphoria, he presented his book "Memories of the beginning of the armed conflict in Yugoslavia in 1991". Memories are nowhere near black and white, and that's why Lieutenant General Kolšek was not present at the ceremonial forum, along with Chancellor Schröder.

It is clear that the recent past is still fresh, and the local heroes are too impetuous to expect a more thorough review of the decisions made at the time. For example - was it still possible to negotiate, to work out a confederation, to strengthen Milosevic's party, to prevent subsequent wars, victims and relocations? For now, historians are unanimous in their opinion that there was no other way and that "national egoism" was a necessary evil. Thus, Slovenia, paradoxically, remains the only republic of the former Yugoslavia in which there is no questioning of the official version.

No one disputes that the Slovenian leadership understood the action of the JNA as strangling Slovenia's independence, which means that the resistance was not unfounded. But, it is unusual that in the environment that in the eighties in the former federation took the lead with a critical attitude towards the political system, the personality cult of Josip Broz, nuclear plants, irregularities in the JNA, etc. today, a decade later, there is no trace of a critical distance towards the fact that the Slovenian war was conducted unconventionally, with constant agreements and concessions by the hated JNA, which was considered the third military power in Europe. Not a word - although Slovenia and Yugoslavia recently exchanged ambassadors - was not mentioned the murdered JNA recruits and officers, many of whom died believing they were defending Yugoslavia from outside attacks.

Keepers of Pandora's Box

Flawless: At a time when the newly formed states on the soil of the former SFRY are re-examining the stains on the struggle for their own statehood, official Ljubljana has no dilemma - during the conflict with the JNA, the Slovenian territorials did not once violate the rules of humanitarian and war law. There were some affairs (Holmec), civilian trucks and their drivers (mostly foreign nationals) were stopped for the purpose of forming barricades on the approach to border crossings, some drivers were killed or maimed (because none of the Slovenian authorities, who rushed them from the truck , did not warn that their lives were in danger and that they should get away from the vehicle), is that in some places the territorials were the first to open fire... Nothing for that, all of that was put on the shoulders of the South Army, its aviation and artillery. In the past, that topic was generously used for propaganda purposes for the needs of Slovenian statehood, and unpleasant issues were cut in the bud.

Which does not mean that there are no lists of criminals and trials and that there were none; on the contrary, many officers of the former JNA, including compatriot Konrad Kolšek, were tried before Slovenian courts for "participation in aggression". For years, hundreds of them were faced with various administrative bans, revanchism of the environment, confiscation of pensions, apartments... They and their families, although loyal to the new state, find it difficult to celebrate Independence Day as a "holiday of all those who love our country", as recommended by the Ljubljana "Delo" ".

Nevertheless, for Slovenia and the majority of its citizens, June 25 is the day when real independence began, which, along with the construction of a parliamentary system and numerous reforms, brought a lot of good. When solving their national question, the Slovenians chose a national, although not completely ethnically pure, state. The experiment worked, and the parliament avoided becoming a place for constant quarrels with smaller national groups. Instead, he became a law-enforcement machine. It is also the answer to the question "how is life in Slovenia today?" - the majority of Slovenians would answer: "Better nego pre deset years. "