CROATIAN POLITICAL EMIGRATION AFTER WORLD WAR II

Med letoma 1946 in 1991 je okoli 350.000 Hrvatov emigriralo v zahodne in čezoceanske države, bodisi iz ekonomskih ali političnih razlogov. Organizacije hrvaške politične emigracije na zahodu po drugi svetovni vojni bi lahko razdelili na legalne, pollegalne in nelegalne. Tiste, ki so se pri svojem delovanju posluževale teroristično-diverzantskih akcij, so načeloma bile nelegalne, vendar včasih le pogojno, saj je ta nelegalnost služila zgolj kot obramba pred morebitno jugoslovansko intervencijo pri tamkajšnjih oblasteh. Osnovna značilnost vseh emigrantskih organizacij je bil nacionalizem in šovinizem. Ker pa so bili emigranti različnih miselnosti in političnih prepričanj, je za hrvaško politično emigracijo bila značilna razdvojenost. Ta nasprotja so emigraciji preprečila vse napore, da bi se uspešno povezala pod eno zastavo oz. organizacijo. Emigrantske organizacije so se razlikovale po načinu delovanja, številčnosti in organiziranosti. Nekatere organizacije so se za dosego svojih ciljev posluževale predvsem propagande, druge so edino sredstvo za dosego ciljev videle v terorističnih in diverzantskih akcijah. Glavni cilj hrvaške politične emigracije je bila samostojna hrvaška država, pri čemer se je velik del opiral na ustaštvo. Jugoslovanske varnostnoobveščevalne službe so hrvaško politično emigracijo bolj ali manj uspešno nadzirale. Pri tem so se posluževale različnih prijemov. Najpogostejše je bilo delo s t.i. sodelavci ali agenti pod krinko, ki so se uspešno prikradli med predstavnike emigracije. Tako je varnostnoobveščevalna služba vnašala nemir in razdor znotraj emigrantskih vrst. Ko pa so bili izčrpani vsi koraki, je preostala le še ena možnost: ugrabitev ali atentat.Between 1946 and 1991 approximately 350.000 Croatians emigrated to the western and overseas countries due to economic or political reasons. The Croatian organisations of political migration in the west after the Second World War can be categorised as legal, semi-legal and illegal. Those that engaged in terrorist-diversionary actions were chiefly illegal although sometimes only conditionally for this illegality served merely as a defence against a possible Yugoslavian intervention against the authorities of the said countries. The main characteristic of all emigrant organisations was nationalism and chauvinism, but since the emigrants were of different mentality and political beliefs, the Croatian political emigration was marked by division. These oppositions prevented the emigration from all the efforts to successfully form into one organisation or to be presented under one flag. The emigration organisations were different action-, number- and organisation wise. To achieve their goals, some made use of propaganda while the others saw the only means for fulfilling their ambitions in terrorist and diversionary actions. The primary goal of the Croatian political emigration was an independent Croatian country. In achieving it, a significant part of the emigration relied on Ustashism. The Yugoslavian security and intelligence agencies more or less successfully controlled Croatian political emigration by means of diverse activities. The commonest was working with the so-called undercover agents who successfully infiltrated among the emigration representatives, thus stirring up disorder and discord. But when all the alternatives were exhausted, there was one final option left: abduction or assassination