THE DARKSIDE OF NATIONAL IDENTITY CARDS
HOW FAR CAN A GOVERNMENT GO
HOW FAR CAN A GOVERNMENT GO
National identity cards for citizens are a sign of a police state, people say. It may be more or less so, depending on the country, but the following example shows what can be done and how far can a government go in taking civil liberties away from people, even in a country which is a potential member of the European Union. This true horror story is about Croatia.
Croatian Government, led by Franjo Tuđman and Vladimir Šeks, used citizens’ private information for law-based ethnic cleansing during and after the Croatian War for Independence, for control of their own citizens after the War, and for theft of citizens’ assets in recent times. All the crime is commited by members of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), with Social Democratic Party (SDP) being no less guilty as quiet bystanders.
Yugoslavia had ID cards, and Croatia continued with that practice when Yugoslavia fell apart. Actually, Croatian government at the time, led by Franjo Tuđman and the legal mastermind Vladimir Šeks, saw an opportunity to use ID cards for a special agenda.
Unique Master Citizen Number
The mainstay of the police state in Croatia is a Unique Master Citizen Number (JMBG), issued to every individual at birth. It contains the date of birth, sex and nationality. The nationality is clearly visible to everyone who reads your JMBG, making it a potential security threat if someone decides to, say, ethnically cleanse your nation.
JMBG was shown on ID cards in Yugoslavia and early indepedent Croatia, and was removed from Croatian ID cards in 2002. The number is, however, still widely used as means of identification at banks, schools, and, of course, whenever and wherever you deal with the state. Basically, your bank knows your nationality. Although JMBG was supposed to be a secret number known only to the government.
Vladimir Šeks, the legal mastermind behind the crime commited by Croatian Democratic Party, and the reigning president of Parliament, started issuing “Domovnica” during the War, a document proving Croatian nationality of the owner. Nice piece of paper, with the crest and everything, you may even frame it. I bet you can already see its real purpose. To separate the good apples from the bad apples. If you can issue that document to someone, you may also refuse to issue it to some other people. The Serbs. And you know who they are, because it’s written in stone – their JMBG.
To make the long story short, that’s how tens of thousands of Serbs lost their civil rights in Croatia in the blink of an eye. Most of them moved out. The ones that survived the carnage committed by Tuđman-hired dogs of war which all got a Domovnica (and many other things) in return. Not all Serbs need to be killed, thought Tuđman. Brutally kill some, and the rest will flee. So it was. When it comes to real estate, the Serb houses were left without an owner, as the owner has no civil rights, and the houses were “nationalized” and either taken by the government or given to Croatian citizens (the ones with Domovnica) in those areas where Serb concentration was unacceptably high. Tuđman never his his agenda that no more than 3-4% of Serbs should exist in Croatia. The current percentage is 4%, and the number was reduced from 580.000 (13%) in 1991. to 180.000 (4%) in 2011. Where did the 400.000 go?
Some were killed as soldiers/paramilitaries, a lot were slaughtered with knives as unarmed civilians, and the majority moved out. Only the bravest, or the ones which had nowhere to go, stayed in Croatia. The plan about the 4% worked, and it was based on JMBG and on Domovnica.
Since the carnage was orchestrated by the HDZ / Tuđman government, even parliament members and high HDZ officials were involved in the actual murders, holding the gun. Or a knife. Or making the civilians drink battery acid. And got decorated for it.
Corrupt government knows where you sleep
The law states that Croatian citizens must report every change of residence to the police. It’s impossible to get an ID card without a registered home address, which means that homeless people, Gypsies and many tenants are finding it difficult or impossible to get an ID card. Without an ID card, you can’t do anything, and it’s even illegal for you to move around without an ID card. In 2011. Even if you’re moving around your own neighbourhood, if the police catches you without an ID card you’re arrested and interrogated. And fined, at the best case.
The procedure for registering a home address is complicated, on purpose. You need an owner’s certificate of the apartment, a sale contract, a contract of lease if you’re a tenant, and a written statement by the owner (verified by a notary public) that you live there if you’re not the owner. Since there’s a mess in the land registry of Croatia, it’s often difficult or impossible to prove the ownership of an object. One well-known example is a house still owned by a woman who was born in 1814. And there are a lot of such cases.
In those cases, you request a field check by the police, and they come to your door in several weeks asking you do you live there. They also visit all of your neighbours, asking them do you live there. If the neighbours are willing to cooperate, you might get your ID card within a couple of weeks. But imagine what happens if they don’t want to cooperate. If you’re a Serb. No ID card – no rights.
Everything described here is a standard procedure in Croatia, stated by the laws. Basically, you have to prove to the government you’re Croatian, prove where you live, and then and only then you get your civil rights. As much as you can get in Croatia, that is.
Those living “illegally”, on an address which wasn’t registered with the police, will sooner or later have to fold and find a way to register an address in order to prevent the loss of all civil rights. If you’re registering a new car, for example, and you need new licence plates, the police will refuse to hand them to you if the “address is wrong”. That’s how the system works, it’s designed to take away your civil rights if you don’t comply with the rules of the police state. Again, it was designed to separate the good apples from bad apples and the principles stand although the Serbs are gone.
One single statement made by Franjo Tudjman perfectly describes his opinion on his citizens. During the Zagreb crisis, he called the people “small-time cattle”. The term remains in the collective memory and is often cited.
The Croatian government is in breach of United Nations Declaration of Rights, as it does not offer all its citizens civil rights. It is in breach of its own Constitution, as the Constitution says all citizens of Croatia have equal rights regardless of their nationality, status etc. etc.
Serbs do have an ID card now, but the unwanted ones were “legally” eliminated early on. Or eliminated with a bullet or a knife. As soon as the percentage of Serbs went to an “acceptable” number, the hunt pretty much ceased.
But, as JMBG says what’s your nationality, and your true address is known to the police, it’s not very difficult if you want to ethnically clense some minority. Or take away some other rights away from them. You know who they are and where they live.
Personal Identification Number
In 2011., in modern pro-European Croatia, a “tax number” called OIB (Personal Identification Number) was instituted after being tested for two years. JMBG was already far too compromised and, since it’s a secret number afterall, it’s range of possible uses for the government was relatively small.
So they wanted to go a step further.
Croatia is in big debt, troubled in insolvency, as the corrupt government which is buying votes (by giving jobs, subventions, free passes and other “freebies”) ate itself, or should I say, all the available money and resources in the country. The HDZ party, let’s not forget, ruined the majority of profitable factories in Croatia in order to make a profit for individual members of the party and the party’s little helpers such as dogs of war. That’s the sole reason why the industry was reduced to a memory of what once was.
Increasing taxes is one way to finance the oversized government which is based on corruption, and it was done, but it wasn’t enough. The beast needs more.
OIB is a public number. You can find someone’s OIB on the internet and see all of their belongings such as houses, cars etc. OIB was promoted as a tool which would make all possessions transparent and so people could see which belongings each politician has. Democracy at its finest.
Take note, the government just acquired the knowledge about your car, house, and all bank accounts.
Using OIB, and having access to all bank accounts in the country, the government gave the Ministry of Finance the right to directly handle all foreclosures in Croatia, starting from Jan 1st, 2011.
Sense the disaster coming up?
People who had debts towards the government, government-owned companies, and big private companies, woke up one morning and saw the money is missing. Including the alimony, child support, unepmployment money, the War veteran pensions, and similar income sources which ought to be safe from foreclosures according to the Croatian law. Depending on the size of the debt, a citizen may be left with nothing or his account balance may even go to negative.
The majority of people didn’t receive a written verdict against them, and didn’t know what was going on. In order to find out, it’s necessary to physically go to the Ministry of Finance and submit a written request. The report which you’ll receive costs $9 per page.
The Ministry of Finance and the banks share 55-45 the fees associated with the foreclosures, the standard fee per forclosure (per each bank account) is around $20.
There are 600.000 foreclosures.
This law is exercised only on average citizens, the “small-time cattle”, in an effort to save Croatia from bankruptcy and to reduce internal debt. Civil rights, Croatian laws, UN declarations, European Union laws, legality as a whole, and even the Croatian Constitution are all broken. The law isn’t exercised on companies, especially not on those companies owned by the government. The government-owned companies actually have the biggest accumulated debt in Croatia, towards private-owned companies. But the law doesn’t work for the government, which is actually the biggest contributor to the internal debt.
So, Croatia has a lot of instruments of control over Croatian citizens. ID card is a must have, and it’s illegal to walk around without it (you’re fined, in the best-case scenario), JMBG is still used by the government for having an overview of the nationality of people, and OIB is used for all other purposes which include your possessions. Total control, you might say.
Fighting for freedom is easy when you have a clear enemy. But when your government is putting “legal” pressure on you, there is no tangible opponent and most of the people in Croatia tolerate what’s happening. Same as small-time cattle would do.
So, if you see similarities between what was written and your own country, be aware that this is how far a government can go and it’s dangerous. But they’ll only go as far as you allow them to. Fight against national ID cards. They can be covered in blood in certain countries.
The above article is not a matter of opinion. It’s based on facts and the relations between facts. If I said “Croatia is run by bastards and inhabited by sheep”, that’s a matter of opinion and we may argue. But the article is based on pure facts which can be checked by following links I provided, by making your own research, and by studying Croatian Constitution, the Croatian laws, and the Croatian history. The article serves just to round it all up.
Everyone is free to distribute the article in its original form, giving credit to the author.
