The Ritual Burning of Feral Tribune

/////////////////////////////***\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  
                    O T V O R E N E  O C I 
            Croatian Branch of the Balkan Peace Team           
             Male Putine 2/V  41000 Zagreb  CROATIA

                Zagreb:  tel/fax +385-01-156-349        
                Split :  tel/fax +385-21-553-610              

              otvorene-oci_zg@zamir-zg.ztn.apc.org             
              otvorene-oci_st@zamir-zg.ztn.apc.org
/////////////////////////////***\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

Split, June 28.

Three weeks ago the well known Split based weekly of "Croatian
anarchists, protestants and heretics" Feral Tribune,
celebrated their two year existence as an independent weekly.

It has not gone unnoticed that several times, attempts were
made to intimidate Feral Tribune.  A special tax was imposed
on the paper (which was lifted only a few months ago), the
editor in chief was mobilized and numerous court cases have
been brought against it.

On Tuesday June 27, an attempt was made to intimidate not only
the Editorial Board of the paper, but also its readers and
sellers. A group of three men robbed the Feral Tribune news-
boy of all his newspapers, tore them apart and subsequently
burnt them on one of Split's main squares. 

The action of robbing kiosk-holders of their Feral Tribune
issues and performing the ritual burning lasted for two hours
and took the three men through the whole town centre.

Feral Tribune had been warned a day before, since the men did
the same but on a smaller scale on Monday, promising that they
would come back the next day. The men had also informed the
local press as well as local television.

No-one intervened; the men performed their action unhindered
by police and public. The Feral Tribune editorial board is
rather surprised by the fact that no police at all were
present during these two hours in the centre of the town.
However, the same afternoon a Feral Tribune editor was
promised by the police that it would do all in its power to
apprehend the perpetrators.  

The Editorial board issued a public statement yesterday in
which they state their suspicion that this action is part of 
broader activities, to be undertaken during the coming period
against Feral Tribune. The weekly sees the action as an act of
intimidation and warns that the burning of Feral Tribune might
be only the beginning; Feral will not be the only written word
to go up in flames.


Slobodna Dalmacija, of which Feral Tribune was once the
satirical supplement, wrote on page eleven about the "Firy
Polemic with Feral". Their conclusion was that it would be
better to leave Feral in peace, nobody reads it anyway and
actions like this only give Croatia a bad name.

One out of two kiosks in the centre was selling Feral Tribune
today, however, the Feral Tribune news boys were not sent out
to sell the weekly this morning. Otvorene Oci interviewed a
few of the robbed kiosk-holders to find out whether they felt
intimidated and would stop the selling of Feral Tribune. Some
of them had no issues left to sell as they were all burnt, but
all stated that most likely they would be selling Feral
Tribune again next week. The men, however, have promised to
repeat their action next week. 

Kiosk-holders have differing opinions on the action. One of
them values the action as an act of three brave men who did
what 90 percent of Split citizens think, but do not dare to
do, another stated that everybody has the right to read and
write what they like and firmly disapproves of the act. 

The following days and next week will show whether this event
is a well and seriously organized attempt to intimidate the
independent weekly Feral Tribune or an act of individual
violence and condemnation.†## CrossPoint v3.02 ##