SIR.— Leaving the BBC's Yugoslav Service alone, as others seem to
have plenty to say about it, I must challenge Mr. Robb-King's sweeping statement that the Yugoslays are not oppressed and that they do not live in a Police State.
Yugoslavia is a one-party, one-man dictatorship, without free speech or a free press. The slightest deviation from the official 'line' is treated and pun- ished as treasonable. No doubt some people like and admire Tito. But surely there must be some other reason for the regime getting a monotonous 99 per cent majority at all the 'elections' since 1945? In proportion to its population Yugoslavia is, after East Germany. the largest refugee-yielding State in Europe. Only in 1957 over 25,000 people escaped to Italy and Austria alone, and over 75 per cent. of them were under twenty-five. Even nowadays a person can be sentenced to several months' imprisonment for a private joke about Tito. In addition he gets beaten up as a matter of course. I could introduce Mr. Robb- King to an elderly lady, now a physical and mental wreck, who has been slapped, kicked, trampled upon, beaten with straps, sticks, even doorknobs, and given electric shocks, and all this (and several years in Prison) for having written letters containing criticism of the regime. Balkan police methods have never been an example to the world, but UDBA has achieved an all-time record in barbarity. Or perhaps I should men- tion the case of a girl who had to apply thirteen times in order to obtain a passport and thus be able to visit her relatives in Britain. Or the numerous instances of visitors from Yugoslavia who are afraid to be seen in Public with emigres here, lest they be reported on their return.
The fact that all these handicaps do not prevent the Yugoslav people from criticism and discussion of Politics is only a tribute to their courage, not to the leniency of the regime. Let us by all means go to Yugoslavia and enjoy the splendid scenery. Let us even have correct relations with the ruling class. Let Us not be slow in recognising the achievements of the System and give praise where it is due. But it is Unreasonable to take a pleasantly spent summer as a Yardstick, and unjust to allow such considerations to make us blind to the facts of a dictatorship which, in its disregard of the elementary human rights, rates no better than Franco's.—Yours faithfully,
STIEPAN GRABOVAC
UK Representative, Hrvatska Zora 15 Clarissa Road, Chadwell Heath,
Romford, Essex
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