President: Pukanic Said They Would Kill Him

Croatian president remembered his friendship with Ivo Pukanic, all his virtues and flaws in the new issue of the Nacional weekly.

ZAGREB, CROATIA – The new issue of the Nacional weekly, first after the assassination of its publisher and co-owner Ivo Pukanic and the paper`s marketing director Niko Franjic, brings a column by the President of Croatia, Stjepan Mesic.

In the beginning of his article, Mesic describes events which occurred on Thursday when Pukanic was murdered, the way he found out about his death, what went through his head and how he took it.

- I pick up my mobile phone, answer and listen: “A powerful bomb exploded in the Nacional courtyard. It looks like Puki was killed”. As if someone had hit me with a sledgehammer. Puki killed? We talked over the telephone yesterday. He told me then: “Listen, Stipe, they`ll kill me”, but I must admit, even though I was worried a bit, I didn`t take him seriously. It is true, an assassination was attempted on his life several months ago, many, unlike me, did not believe him – President Mesic began his farewell column.

Mesic revealed that he has known Pukanic ever since he appeared as a journalist at the Globus paper.

- I noticed him then already because of characteristics which were typical for him, then and throughout the years that followed. He was direct, at times even rough in that bluntness… and what seemed to be most significant, he was not afraid. He often spoke and wrote about things others kept quiet about – Mesic started describing his relationship with Pukanic, pointing out that they became friends in time, but they were not “house friends” as the word was, but respected each other. Ever since he took on the presidential post, Pukanic would at times show up uninvited and unannounced in his office.

“Now it the time for our companionship to end”

- He knew many people and they included those one would not invite home… The subject of death became more common in our conversations which became rarer than in previous years under circumstances. Thus, without any introduction, a day before he was executed by a bomb, he told me amidst the telephone call: “Listen, Stipe, they`ll kill me”. And now he is gone… We will miss his ruthless pen which sorely torn down the false gold gilding the new elite covered itself with, with which wealthy men covered the sources of their wealth. As far as I am concerned, I lost a friend who has never hesitated to speak his mind and to whom I could have said my mind without holding back, all up to the point that I would notice: “Puki, if you keep this up, we won`t be socialising any more”. Now, it is time for our companionship to end – Croatian President Stjepan Mesic wrote in his preview of the friendship with Ivo Pukanic, adding that Croatia was threatened by terror; there is no more time to lose, but to act – energetically and decisively.

PHOTO: President Attends Ivo Pukanic’s Funeral