Spegel, Martin

Martin Spegel was born on November 11, 1927 in the village of Stari Gradac. His parents and family were supporters of the CSP . During the Second World War, Martin was a partisan . Spegel later rose to the rank of general of the JNA and commander of the 5th Yugoslav Army, whose headquarters was in Zagreb .

After the first free multi-party parliamentary elections in Croatia in 1990, Spegel became the second Minister of Defense of the new Croatia. He was one of the few in the top leadership of Croatia who predicted the inevitability of war, therefore, together with the Slovenian command, he developed a common defensive plan for both countries if any of them were attacked by the JNA .

At the beginning of the war in Croatia in mid- 1990, Croatian Serbs organized resistance (the so-called " log revolution "), not accepting Croatian state power. Since they were supported by the JNA forces (at first behind the scenes, and then frankly), Croatia remained almost defenseless, therefore, Spegel began the operation of purchasing weapons on the black market , importing it from the countries of the former Warsaw Pact , primarily from neighboring Hungary , as well as Romania .

In October 1990, he was filmed during conversations with an assistant who was actually a secret officer in counterintelligence of the CBS of communist Yugoslavia . In conversations, Spegel speaks of arming the Croats in preparation for the separation of Croatia and the impending civil war. ^[1] The so-called Spegel films were transformed by the Zastava Military Film and Television Center into a documentary film, which was aired in January 1991, where the general Yugoslav public was able to see them. The release of the films was intended to justify the armed intervention of the Yugoslav leadership against the newly elected authorities of Croatia ^[2] .

The Croatian leadership, including the main "actor" himself, quickly quickly denied the tapes as fakes, arguing that maybe they weren’t so dangerous, the recorded video conversations were subsequently duplicated . However, their authenticity was later almost confirmed, and Croatian President Stepan Mesic was one of the first from the Croatian side. On most films, the sound is distorted, and the text is subtitled and read by voice-overs, so the accuracy of the film remains in question.

The leadership of JNA in Belgrade demanded that Spegel appear before the court on charges of treason. Due to this scandal, and in order to relieve tension, Tudjman relieved him of his post. Fearing for his life, Spegel fled to Austria , where he stayed for several months.

Alarmed by the growing tension and the first victims of the war, Spegel convinces himself to return to Croatia to become the chief of staff of the new army, which was in its infancy.

When the war broke out in Slovenia in June 1991, Spegel demanded that a common defense plan be put in place, according to which Croatia would enter the war against the JNA, capturing its army barracks throughout Croatia ( Spegel's plan ). However, Tudjman was afraid of open armed confrontation and refused to support the Slovenes .

Spegel was then transferred to the post of inspector general of the Croatian army, in part because of his disagreements with Tujman.

Only a few months later, a full-scale war broke out, and Spegel’s plan to attack the UNA army barracks in Croatia was realized. The implementation progress went down in history under the name “ Battle for the Barracks ”, and as a result, Croatia received many heavy weapons that it needed so much.

To some extent, the war was stopped by signing a ceasefire agreement in early 1992 , after which Spegel officially resigned.

After the war, Spegel became a critic of Tudjman's policy, accusing him and his followers of speculating in the war. In 2001, he published his biography , in which he spoke very critically about the Croatian Democratic Union of Tujman and his political maneuvers, which he argues that they unnecessarily fueled the war. He also accused them of supporting the separatism of the Bosnian Croats , which led to their conflict with the Bosnians during the Bosnian war .

In turn, Spegel criticized the elements committed by Tujman in the Croatian army, in particular, Davor Domaset-Losho, who believes that the Slovenian war in June 1991 was just an excuse for involving Croatia in the conflict ^[3] . He believes that the Spegel plan served as a trap for Croatia, given the prospect of the Battle of the Barracks, which brought Croatia several tanks, armored personnel carriers and heavy artillery, which deprived the Yugoslav People’s Army of about 10% of its military power.

He died on May 11, 2014 in Zagreb . He was buried in the Mirogoj cemetery ^[4] .

• Špegelj Film