"The Four" Remember Historic Clash with Yugoslav Army

Ljubljana, 01 June

The 18th anniversary of a historic incident for Slovenia was marked on Thursday with a meeting of the three journalists and a non-commissioned officer, among them PM Janez Jansa, who were tried before a military court for exposing secret orders of the Yugoslav People's Army (JLA).

PM Jansa, ex-army officer Ivan Borstner, David Tasic and Franci Zavrl were arrested in 1988 after Borstner passed to the weekly Mladina a secret order to the JLA to raise the combat readiness in Slovenia, which Mladina published.
The four were also joined by Igor Bavcar, the chief exec of Istrabenz, who was heading the Human Rights Committee at the time and deserves major credit for organising public protests against the trial.
"We could not imagine that an independent state, democracy and elections were within reach in our lifetimes and that so much change would come about in the former state and Europe as a whole," Jansa remembered.
"We did, however, know that someday this would happen and that it is worth fighting for," he also said.
The incumbent PM added that the Human Rights Committee has been meeting regularly during these 18 years and that despite the fact that the paths of the story's main players have diverged it was time they started converging again.
What has become known as the JBTZ affair (an acronym of the initials of the defendants' surnames) began on 31 May 1988 and was an important catalyst for the democratic movement in the then Socialist Republic of Slovenia.
The arrests and trial mobilised a great part of the Slovenian public, sparking wide protests with great pressure from the public eventually leading to the four - convicted to sentences ranging from five months to four years - being released within a year's time.
While Zavrl pointed out that an affair was inevitable at the time, Tasic stressed that Slovenia had achieved everything it hopped for.
Three of the main players of the affair are still active today, with Jansa heading the country, Igor Bavcar leading Istrabenz - one of leading business groups in Slovenia - and Franci Zavrl a manager of the Pristop communication group.

"The Four" Remember Historic Clash with Yugoslav Army

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