J'Accuse - Appeal for Justice by the Translate/Publisher

J’Accuse – Appeal for Justice by the Translate/Publisher

The Golden Tip was originally written and published in Serbian by the author Slobodan R. Mitric, a former top Yugoslav Counter Intelligence agent, in his publishing house L’Atelier de la Liberté in Amsterdam in 2008. For the Dutch version that appeared in October 2008, I saw fit to write the following words, which in a slightly modified version shall first be rendered here and then followed by an update on the meager reception of this book in The Netherlands.

“The highly sensitive and personal nature of the revelations made in this book and the possibility that these disclosures may be viewed by some of those involved as an invasion of privacy or even construed as defamation, obliges me to justify my action in making this edition publicly available. Thereby it is necessary to say something about the book, the author and his work as well as the objectives and activities of the Willehalm Institute Press.

On September 21, 2006 while walking with Slobodan Mitric near the Rembrandt Square in Amsterdam, I drew his his attention to the fact that Hank Heijn, the widow of Ahold top man Gerrit Jan Heijn, had just published a book about the abduction and murder of her husband in 1987 and her reconciliation with the sole person charged and convicted for this kidnapping and homicide, Ferdi Elzas. His first reaction was that probably nothing would be mentioned concerning his contacts with the Heijn family as part of his extensive efforts as world director of the Reserve Police International to also thwart this bizarre crime and, once it had been committed, to disclose its true background. I suggested putting this to the test and so we walked over to the kiosk on the Reguliersbreestraat opposite the Art Nouveau movie theater temple Tuschinsky to purchase a copy of “Reconciliation”. Quickly browsing through the book, I soon found a passage on page 83 where, in spite of Slobodan’s suspicion, “a certain Karate Bob” is presented, which I read to him on the spot: “The craziest tips came in and many of them were discussed during our daily discussions. There were names on the table which I never in my life would have heard of, if Gerrit Jan had not kidnapped. A certain Karate Bob, once arrested for multiple murder and rape as I understood, claimed to have the golden tip, and another, listening to the name of Red Bean, even claimed the kidnapping (…) The tips, now six hundred of them, all led nowhere, but gradually I became suspicious of the whole world.”

Slobodan Mitric as a proud and noble Montenegrin was unpleasantly surprised, even furious about this attack on his integrity and began to fill me further in on the true background of this tragic kidnapping case that for months had captured the headlines far beyond The Netherlands and in 2004 became the background for a Hollywood movie “The Clearing” starring Robert Redford.

I then suggested as his publisher that if were able to put his gripping tale entitled “The Golden Tip” in writing, then we would this time certainly get such a book into the bookstores and thereby give the Dutch people an opportunity to get acquainted with his revelations about the background of the shocking events of 21 years ago – this in contrast to his previously published book “Operation Twins” (Part 1), that no distributor of English books in this country would accept.

That “The Golden Tip” could well become a roaring bestseller, provided sufficient hard evidence was supplied, was confirmed by a conversation shortly afterwards with Toon Schmeink, former deputy editor of the Amsterdam based newspaper Het Parool.*

Slobodan, still in deep mourning about what on good grounds he sees as the cowardly murder of his beloved wife Iris de Vries in the OLVG hospital in Amsterdam-East in January of that year (concerning which the police at that time in my presence refused to take down his testimony), first took up the pen to express his outright indignation in an open letter to the widow of Gerrit Jan Heijn and to briefly state his vision of the real course of events, an open letter which for the first time was made public as a foreword in the Dutch version. Despite the threat posed by the continuing efforts of the Dutch government after a stay of more than thirty years in this country to deport him as a disenfranchised, undesirable alien to his homeland the former Yugoslavia – where a certain death is still awaiting him as a traitor against his country for not carrying out a state liquidation in 1973 against Vladimir Dapcevic, a high-level political opponent of Tito in Brussels – he then started to write in his mother tongue Serbian the first chapter of the proposed book project. Eventually 112 chapters followed that were first translated into English, then edited and translated into Dutch and back checked with the original. In this time-consuming process, it became increasingly clear that these chapters contained much more than the stunning background to the kidnapping case of Gerrit Jan Heijn. In between, the author also managed his Serbian Internet News and other popular weblogs, and to put his own movies on YouTube and other platforms, the addresses of which are listed at the beginning of this book and which may serve to increase the credibility of the information that can be read in this multifaceted reality thriller.

The result of this two year-long process is now out: an autobiographical tragicomic novel written in the form of an almost ready-made screenplay with an open end, many supporting illustrations, 1 song lyric, 4 short epilogues and 11 appendices. The kidnapping case does indeed heads the bill, but is still only one of the many other concurrent narrative layers, from which the attentive reader can discover much about a number of sensational affairs in this country and abroad, including the US, that took place between September 1986 and September 1987 and even before and after that (see the summary and list of dramatis personae by proofreader Ton Major after this account).

Although only the tip of the iceberg, it nevertheless convincingly shows how far the entanglement of the upper and underworld has increased and what the risks to life and limbs are for a crime fighter of a Dr. Troublemaker (a pseudonym of the author) with the guts to cut this “Gordian knot”. Woven into it are some revealing references to his earlier works, such as the still not fully released trilogy “Operation Twins”, which – as incredible as it may seem – concerns the decision in the White House to end the Cold War, forewarnings of the attack on the Twin Towers, the Pentagon etc. on 911, and “The Dutch Mafia”, a forerunner of “The Golden Tip” from 1985, which under false pretenses partly was in advance taken out of circulation and partly en masse bought up from the stores, and as a result ignored, if not blackmailed by the media. Despite these dead serious issues, there is no lack of humorous scenes in between.

Another narrative layer in The Golden Tip describes efforts to contribute ideas for the creation of a new upper world over and above the old, corrupt one. Thereby, the attempts by the old guard to subvert these idealistic efforts through all sorts of presumptions and prejudices, to commit character assassination of the individuals belonging to this cultural avant-garde or to ridicule and isolate them receive an honorable mention. *

This book, like “Operation Twins” Part 1 and the pre-publication of Part 2 issued in 2006, is, as is sometimes suggested in a demeaning fashion, not a break with the previous publications of the Willehalm Institute, but on the contrary a certain supplement and enrichment thereof, because they further demonstrate the necessity and motivation for realizing one of the main statutory objectives of the Willehalm Institute Press Foundation established in 2005 in Amsterdam (although not exactly in the same words): the social or royal art of creating a new upper world and as such to offer the necessary resistance and stamina to the increasing pressures and temptations of the underworld (see appendices 11 and 12 for 2 Willehalm publications and p. 520 for a brief history and the objectives of the Willehalm Foundation).

An until recently virtually unknown historic example of this royal art is the work and life of the Frankish William of Orange (Willehalm), founder of the original medieval House of Orange in the South of France. This paladin of Charlemagne and protector of Celtic Christianity was declared patron saint of the knights in the 12th century. Moreover, as the research report published by the Willehalm Institute “How The Grail Sites Were Found” by the Swiss Grail researcher and anthroposophist Werner Greub has shown (see appendix 10), he was no less the source for the Grail romance “Parzival” as well as the epic poem “Willehalm” by the German Grail knight Wolfram von Eschenbach. By a curious twist of fate, this medieval William of Orange, the current Crown Prince William-Alexander of Orange as the current heir to the Dutch throne, and the founder of the Willehalm Institute have all found their their way into the following pages.

Based on the foregoing, I believe to have amply demonstrated the need and justification for publishing The Golden Tip. The Dutch people, and now also the rest of the world by way of this English edition, have indeed every right to acquaint themselves with this novel graphically depicting the entanglement of the upper and underworld within and beyond The Netherlands so as to be able to judge for themselves whether this inside portrayal is a true one, particularly whether the kidnapping case of Gerrit Jan Heijn was indeed only the revengeful one man-action of a disgruntled engineer.

Concerning the – to put it mildly – sensitivity of some parts of this book, I must say that based on many years of experience I can vouch for the personal integrity of the writer and therefore his work. He has also confirmed to me that all the facts described in it are basically true. There where evidence is lacking and my own observation also falls short, I can therefore grant him the benefit of the doubt. But ultimately, I as the the publisher of his book cannot guarantee the complete truth thereof, that only the writer can do by bringing the large underwater body of the iceberg to the surface. To the extent that I as the publisher could nevertheless be held responsible for any legal violation, publishing this work was motivated by the firm conviction that the necessity, indeed the duty to bring this work out in the interests of truth and justice outweighs the possibility to be sued for defamation or worse. Then, if necessary the judiciary will have to step in to decide whether or not this work lies within the limits of freedom of expression and the right to reply.

Finally, I wish to direct an urgent appeal to the government and the judiciary to mount a thorough inquiry into the unprecedented events brought to the fore in this book, whereby I hope that the well-willing readers will reinforce this request and, failing this, to set up their own civilian investigation. May this lead not only to the disclosure and possible condemnation of the true culprits, but to perhaps the most important objective of this edition: the complete exoneration of the author, recognition of his services to the Dutch people, the Royal House of Orange and to the world at large, plus complete compensation for the many expenses the author has incurred over the past decades, so that in the 61st year of his life he may finally in the few years that he might still have to live (he suffers from a fatal illness) complete his life-work wholly consistent with a typical Dutch tradition of resistance against tyranny and injustice.

Note on the illustrations, lyrics and appendices: The printed and handwritten business cards and other notes stem from the persons involved and serve, like the other documents, letters, self-made photo’s, newspaper articles etc. to accentuate the truth of this novel, thereby bringing a thorough (parliamentary) investigation a step closer. On the Willehalm website additional color illustrations will be placed, accompanied by an orchestrated rendition of the song Scholar Gipsy that is part of a CD in the making and of which the text appears in chapter 82.

The appendices, including a short chronological biography of the author and an Open Letter to Queen Beatrix both with new facts, provide additional background information on the growing entanglement of the upper and underworld as well as the available, but hitherto largely unknown or neglected ideas for creating a new overworld on the ruins of the old.”

II.

In October 2008, the Golden Tip was finally printed with a circulation of 3,000 copies. But the fears of possible legal consequences or even indictments expressed in the above account have one year later proven to be totally groundless, while the appeal for a thorough investigation, complete exoneration and ultimate recognition of the author for his services rendered to the Dutch crown etc. was totally neglected. In spite of a concerted publicity and email campaign, including pre-announcements, press releases, personal or telephone contacts with major crime reporters (some of whom are mentioned in The Golden Tip, such as Peter de Vries, who recently made a name for himself as private eye in the US in the Natalee Holloway case), review copies to various major newspapers and national magazines, the placement of two extra documents on the Willehalm website proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that The Golden Tip does justice to its name, visits to the editors of local and national TV talk shows, even my unannounced television performance as a guest interrupting the live presentation of Hank Heijn’s book “Reconciliation”, many other mild agitprop actions and promotional films made by the author and available on YouTube under “L’Atelier de la Liberté”, and finally a book launch in the Amstel Church here in the center of Amsterdam on May 28 last – in spite of all these maneuvers the main stream press and media have, to my knowledge, not devoted a single word to this publication. A black-out, if not, as I suspect but cannot prove yet, a boycott orchestrated by the very powers that are targeted. This deafening silence on the part of the fourth estate seems almost as ominous as what is revealed in The Golden Tip: the fact that the entanglement of the upper- and overworld has also inflicted its toll on the media and the press, making all talk of real freedom of expression, i.e. the right to reply and be heard in this country, a sham.

But fortunately there was one exception as shown by the following Willehalm Institute Press release, entitled:

Dutch Haarlem Daily Breaks Long Media Silence of The Golden Tip on the Murder of G. J. Heijn

Amsterdam, August 7, 2009 – The “Haarlems Dagblad”, dating back to 1656, is the oldest daily in The Netherlands. With its article listed below “Karate Bob as Whistleblower – Angry Letter to Heijn’s Widow” by Cees van Hoore on July 28, it broke the 10 months long silence imposed by the Dutch press on the controversial autobiographical novel “The Golden Tip – The Entanglement of the Upper and Underworld and the Murder of Gerrit Jan Heijn” by Slobodan Mitric, alias Karate Bob.*

This breakthrough occurred barely a week before Ferdi E., “the lone murderer driven by resentment” (as the Dutch main liberal newspaper NRC on August 4 described him) was knocked down from his bike and deadly wounded by an excavator on August 3; two events which [at first sight] of course have nothing to do with each other. It does mean, however, that this crown witness in the kidnapping case of the Dutch multimillionaire and Ahold industrialist Heijn, who could have corroborated the truth-is-stranger-than-fiction background to this case – as graphically described in “The Golden Tip” as the tip of the iceberg – has unfortunately disappeared from this world. He would e.g. have been able to reveal that he did not act as a loner, but indeed, as the police detective team also initially suspected at the time, as the mastermind of a criminal gang. Hopefully this breakthrough will bring ‘the in depth investigation into the unprecedented events described in the Golden Tip’ a step closer.

Karate Bob as Whistle Blower – Angry Letter to Heijns Widow

Haarlem – In his ‘true reality novel’ The Golden Tip Slobodan Mitric, alias Karate Bob, writes an angry open letter to the widow of Gerrit Jan Heijn, residing in Overveen [a suburb of Haarlem]. Mitric maintains that he had a golden tip on the kidnapping and murder of Gerrit Jan Heijn, but in her book Reconciliation the widow dismisses that as a figment of the imagination of a ‘killer’.

The Golden Tip, the novel by Mitric has 512 pages and is subtitled “The entanglement of the upper and underworld and the murder of Gerrit Jan Heijn.” On page 18, the characters that play a role in this book pass in review. These are well-known [Dutch] criminal lawyers such as Cees Korvinus, Luuk Hamer and Theo de Roos, but also Job de Ruiter [former Minister of Justice and Defense], swindler Ari Olivier, [former Dutch prime minster] Ruud Lubbers and many other celebrities. In the book, the abduction of Albert [must be: Gerrit Jan] Heijn is seen as part of a complex plot that has to do with the invention of the cell phone.

“What have I done to you, so ‘honorable’ madam, that you present me with a certain Karate Bob, ‘once arrested for multiple murder and rape …’”? writes Mitric. He notes that Hank Heijn in her book has reconciled with Ferdi E., but at the same time blackens the one who sought to prevent the abduction. “What kind of person are you anyway?” he wonders. Thanks to his publisher Robert Jan Kelder, Mitric received a copy of the book by the widow of Heijn. He wonders why she slandered him and finishes the open letter in which he once again points to a conspiracy in the case Heijn with the words that this matter will once be made known to the world. He does this in his novel.

The publisher of this book, Robert Jan Kelder of the Willehalm Institute in Amsterdam, regards the publication of this novel as ‘a work of a whistle blower in the interests of truth and justice’. ‘That weighs more heavily for me than the possibility to be indicted for libel or worse.’ He calls the book a ‘gold mine’ for crime journalists. There are many references and golden tips in it. In the publisher’s foreword, Kelder issues an urgent appeal to the government and politicians to mount an in-depth inquiry into the unprecedented events raised in this book. He wants a full rehabilitation of Mitric and recognition for his service to the Dutch people and the world. Mitric has dedicated his book to the artist Iris Mitric-De Vries, who died in 2006.

Note on the contents of the English edition and a pre-announcement.

Two extra documents, including copies of the Dutch originals, indicating that The Golden Tip lives up to its name have been included in this enlarged English edition. The first one, appendix 1 is a note written by the editor of the national newspaper De Volkskrant indicating that the press conference given by Slobodan Mitric to reveal the background of the kidnapping case of G. J. Heijn with which this book begins, did indeed take place. The second document, appendix 2, contains the official testimony given by Prof. Rüter, well-known doctor of criminal law and former president of Amnesty International in Amsterdam, in the court case against the author in 1988, which goes even further in allaying all doubts that The Golden Tip is a product of fantasy, as is still maintained by one of the persons involved: the (retired) jurist of De Volkskrant Victor Lebesque. Also new is the article “Karate Bob, Ruud Lubbers and the Muslim Bomb’ by an anonymous writer (see appendix 3) that was first printed in the pre-publication Operation Twins part II by Slobodan Mitric, an article that describes in detail the role Mitric played as a nuclear counter-espionage agent in the plutonium case mentioned in The Golden Tip. Not included so as not to overload this already voluminous edition is my article “Democracy on Trial” written in 1986 on the dramatic life and work of the author.

It is however listed among the many relevant links found at the beginning of this book. This list is far from complete, for there are many further supporting documents that can and should still be unearthed, especially the one deposited by the author through the hands of public notary Van Erp in the safe of the firm Schut & Van Os on Honthorststraat 3 in Amsterdam (see chapters 94 and 97). Whether also the now declassified official Karate Bob archives, covering the period of his imprisonment between 1974 and 1986, which the Dutch Minister of Justice E.M.H. Hirsch Balin on October 16, 2009 has released to the National Archives in The Hague, are much to his advantage is another question. On the contrary, for according to reliable sources, all positive parts of this ministerial dossier have been removed, leaving only the negative ones. On the blog “100% Archivist” this dossier is furthermore summarized by the lie that “Karate Bob was arrested in Amsterdam on December 25, 1973 for the political murder of three of his countrymen.” This is disinformation, for it was manslaughter in self-defense, in which not three but one of his criminal assailants was killed (see appendix 6 “Open Letter to Queen Beatrix” by the author, which deals with the reason for his visit to The Netherlands, his arrest and the contract between him, the former state of Yugoslavia and The Netherlands). This important period in 1973 is missing, or at least not mentioned in the announcement. This dossier can therefore be designated as a judicial falsification…

Finally, a falsification and cover-up of far greater proportion and complexity concerns the following pre-announcement: the forthcoming publication of Slobodan Mitric’s latest book entitled “HELP! THEY’VE KIDNAPPED ME! LADY DI”, which he announced on October 28, 2009 on his Serbian Internet News site and of which he has published and bound 30 copies himself in the original Serbian. This was followed on November 7 by our own public pre-annoucement with an advance edition of the title page, dedication, the first two chapters and the back flap, now also to be viewed on the Willehalm website under “Help Lady Di!” The author describes his latest novel as “a modern fairy-tale”, but having heard the gist of it I am not so sure that the attentive reader will believe him, as this “fairy tale” answers many if not all the still outstanding and unresolved questions in this dramatic event that so shocked and grieved millions…

I end this update for the English edition by broadening my appeal for an investigation to all human rights organizations, institutions and individuals fighting miscarriages of justice wherever they may occur. Their efforts and support will, God willing, contribute to the publication of a sequel to this book, in which the show trial of the author in 1988, presided over by a judge (R.H.), who at that time was under scrutiny for a conflict of interests and even high treason (see chapter 49), will take center stage.

* * *

* At the time of going to press, this person now suddenly, only based on his reading of an early version of this account, the summary and the blurb, very strongly advised me not to publish this book, warning me of possible legal consequences, since he could discover only vague suspicions and no hard evidence for the severe accusations in the texts that I had given him. This former newspaperman, who is now publisher of “Motif”, the monthly magazine of the Anthroposophical Society in the Netherlands, thus passed this negative judgment without having read a single word of the book itself, a rather epistemological vice not in accordance with the principles of anthroposophy. Earlier, my application for membership in the collective of so-called Free Publishers “De Vrije Uitgevers,” (DVU) in order to secure the distribution of The Golden Tip that way, was rejected by its director under the DVU requirement that publishers of this collective may not bring out books that can “cause commotion.” Somewhat earlier this “Free publisher” had suggested to me that what he had read of The Golden Tip was on the border of libel, or is even defamatory,” and that in his opinion the contents of the book should be build up more carefully. “Multiple sources. Hear both sides.” My reply was that this unique book is mostly based on the personal observations of an experienced writer and secret agent, who had also spent many years in prison and that there were simply no (public) sources to be consulted anywhere. The book itself could therefore be regarded as a primary source. Furthermore, after 21 or more years of a continuous and unilateral process of character assassination by the counter-party, the author himself must now finally be given the right to reply with his account of the true state of affairs. Also earlier, a literary agent in Amsterdam named Remco had refused to cooperate with the PR campaign for The Golden Tip. And a question to the organization of the Amsterdam World Book Capital for active participation in their international symposium on NEO-CENSORSHIP “Threats to the Open Book” on September 19 and 20 in Amsterdam led only to polite rejections. One bright spot in this discussion, however, was the Amsterdam publisher Alfred Scheepers of the Olive Press who, based on accurate hearsay and without having read The Golden Tip itself, compared it in principle to Multatuli’s famous novel “Max Havelaar”, in which all the details are given, namely “the [Indonesian native] regent and the [Dutch colonial] resident are accused from a subjective point of view, without a thorough investigation, without hearing both sides. Also there, both resident and regent could justifiably have lodged a complaint for libel. Also there, it was decided to at least change the name of the resident (for a native it was not necessary). Yet Max Havelaar is the summit of Dutch literature. Now I admit that my intuition tells me that Mitric’s work probably will not possess the literary status of Havelaar. Nevertheless, it is the same principle.”

* The Dutch word for “underworld” is “onderwereld”, which in these Low Lands has been in use for centuries. This is definitely not so with the term “upper world” (in Britain also: “overworld”), which in Dutch is “bovenwereld”, a combination of “boven” meaning “up, over or above” and “wereld” for “world”. Now, this word “bovenwereld” was around 1986/87, when the events described in The Golden Tip took place in The Netherlands not yet in existence. Since then this word, due to the public perception of the increasing entanglement between these two worlds, has become completely “naturalized”, for now it is generally understood that with “bovenwereld” not the heavens above, the spiritual or supernatural world of the divine hierarchies is meant, but the top layer of human society, royalty and government: politicians, lawyers, jurists, managers, bankers, doctors, etc. in contrast to the shadowy figures who populate the underworld.

* This welcome exception to the rule is most probably an accidental leak in the defense system of the establishment, because the article was only published in the local section of the Haarlem edition and not, as was explicitly requested, in the rest of the cities and town of the province of North Holland covered by this newspaper.