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Vlado Gotovac

Sep 18, 1930 - Dec 7, 2000(70)

Convict 5,023

He was a poet, an intellectual and a political martyr. He said: - Protect Croatia from meanness and hatred! –

Vlado Gotovac was an engaged intellectual, speaker and publicist throughout his life. He was among the first in the region to open debates on nationalism, conservatism and freedom. He approached them starting from three fundamental beliefs: love for the homeland, freedom and respect for differences.

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As a participant in the Croatian Spring, Vlado was sentenced to four years of rigorous imprisonment with a three-year loss of civil rights. He endured the entire prison term in Stara Gradiška without asking for pardon.

- In Stara Gradiška, I refused to sign the petition for pardon. I did it because that plea implies an admission of guilt. I would sign a lie about myself and others. And all this for ten months less imprisonment. I didn't do it out of arrogance and defiance. It was just consistency. –

In the first trial, Vlado was imprisoned and punished for an editorial in the Croatian Weekly, and the second time for an interview with foreign journalists. Vladi's stay in prison severely damaged his health and he had liver problems for the rest of his life. He was held as a convict in 5,023.

For a long time, the convict was strictly forbidden to write in the penitentiary. And yet, Gotovac secretly recorded his thoughts. He did it on various types of paper, including toilet paper. He was never silent.

On May 20, 1989, together with Dražen Budiša, Slavko Goldstein and Vlado Gotovec, he founded HSLS. At the beginning of the nineties, he became more actively involved in politics. He was disappointed with Franjo Tuđman's way of ruling and his policy towards Bosniaks, and he expressed his opinion publicly, despite numerous criticisms.

In 1997, he ran for president. He was savagely attacked during a speech in Pula in the same year. The attacker, a member of the elite brigade, inflicted minor physical injuries on him. The act of vandalism was strongly condemned by international organizations, and the Ministry of Defense suspended and detained the attacker.

Vlado eventually became disillusioned with HSLS, the party he created and decided to separate from it and found the Liberal Party.

He said about himself and his efforts: - The only meaning of my work is in the effort to ensure a real, humane, just and free community - for everyone and everywhere; a community that not only tolerates diversity, but also rejoices in it, just as the builders of the cathedral in Chartres rejoice when they assemble their religious rosettes from multicolored glass. Such a joyful and diverse world - that's my dream! If I have to be judged because of him, I agree to that because without that dream neither I nor my work has any meaning. –

Vlado fought for Croatia all his life. He believed in her until the end. He believed that it could become a human, just and free community, the way he saw it, despite the suffering it gave him. Finally, he said: - Protect Croatia from meanness and hatred! –

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