NATO in Croatia

AIM Zagreb, November 24, 2000

As late as spring of this year, the commander of the Croatian air force general Josip Culetic mentioned the possibility of the NATO base presently stationed in the Italian townlet of Aviano being relocated to Udbina. The move - the general argued - would do Croatia good, further strengthening its strategic ties to the western military alliance and, probably, resulting in a substantial material gain for Croatia as well.

"The relocation to any of our airports would envelope investments, the reconstruction of the infrastructure, runways, electrical installations, buildings, facilities, radio-navigational equipment.... all of which would be of benefit to us. As far as Udbina is concerned - Culetic went on - we do have a runway there that meets the prescribed requirements for the take off and landing of any type of aircraft, but what we do not have is the necessary infrastructure. Investments in such installations should be viewed as more than acceptable, particularly so in the case of Udbine, since there is no one else aspiring to it and since the air space over there is free. Furthermore, the overall meteorological circumstances of the place are favorable, its vicinity to the Plitvice lakes and the Adriatic... Just take a look at all these American military bases! They are all located in the middle of deserts, without a living soul to be found within a hundred miles. And, whenever NATO decides to build a base, it always builds up the entire infrastructure, up to the kindergartens for the kids".

Lately, during the joint military maneuvers of the US and Croatian troops entitled "Slunj 2000" (involving mainly marines backed up by airplanes and helicopters) the whole idea drew closer to being actually realized. The Americans, as the general told us, stationed a number of their aircraft at the Udbine airport, assessing the feasiblity of the relocation of their base to the little town in Lika where the former Yugoslav Army (JNA) built a rather small, but significant military air base. The Americans were, as we were told, rather satisfied with the location, but hardly with anything else: starting with the runway and the existing constructions, to the overall infrastructure in Udbine and its vicinity, all judged to be practically unserviceable. If they were ever to move to Udbine, the Americans concluded, a great deal of reconstructing and downright building was to be done anew. Yet another American air and naval maneuvers are to take place in the next few weeks on the soil of Crotaia, more precisely in the vicinity of Pula.

Nuclear subs have made port in the Adriatic. Four of the aircraft that are to take part in the maneuvers are already stationed at the army airfield in Pula, the rest are to arrive in the following days. Apart from Udbine and Zadar, Pula is one of the candidates running for the position of a new base site for the Americans. The Pleso airport in Zagreb - according to general Culetic - has been excluded from existing plans because of its excessively dense air traffic, while Osijek never came up in the talks. At the moment, it's impossible to find out at what stage the negotiations for the possible relocation of American bases to Croatia are - among other things, because membership in the Partnership for Peace is viewed as a great privilege by the majority of the public, a way for Croatia to disentangle itself from within the framework of the loathsome Balkans. On the other hand, hardly any took the time to seriously think over an important issue. If hosting American bases is such a favorable investment, how come the Italians don't want it, in Aviano or elsewhere?

The answer to the question was partially made clear to the Croatian public during the maneuvers "Slunj 2000". Croatia was chosen as its setting quite unexpectedly - in the last instant, in fact - after the drill planned to take place in Israel was canceled due to the recent dramatic developments in this country. The Croatian government gave its consent in a laconic manner, justifying itself by quoting the supposedly tangible benefits of the undertaking. The army propagandists rushed to brag about the extraordinary advantages the entire Slunj region might draw from staging the maneuvers. It was, for instance, made known that: the Americans would reimburse the expenses for the use of the army range, fuel, infrastructure, etc. There were claims of considerable gains the population itself was to expect from the enterprise. As an illustration, the intention of the Americans to blaze the trail for a minor road to Rijeka and their promise to attend English lessons in the sole elementary school in Slunj were made public. Even the industrious women of Slunj, it was said, would profit by doing the laundry for the marines for the price of 300 kunas!

But, deep crevices soon appeared on the shiny surface of this explanation. At the very start of the maneuvers, the Ministry for the Protection of the Environment complained that the Ministry of Defense has failed to notify it of even the basic facts concerning the location and time of the exercise which in some other case wouldn't have been deemed a crucial omission, but in this one the concern of the ecologists was legitimate, since the maneuvers took place at the Slunj army range, i.e. in the vicinity of the Plitvice falls. Unfortunately, the anxiety of the Ministry for the Protection of the Environment proved to be in place because the American jets flew over the national park of Plitvice a couple of times, nearly bursting the gypsum cascades which take centuries to form and only a second to split. The overflies allegedly had yet another disagreeable effect: during the exercise windows in private homes in the region cracked on a massive scale. That is why on this occasion members of the Croatian Home Guardsmen Alliance from Slunj - the very same ones that a couple of months earlier erected a monument in the center of Slunj in memory of the Ustasha officer Jure Francetic killed in 1944 by the partisans in the same city - this time tuned themselves to the wavelength of environmental organizations.

The Americans took the protests of the environmentalists into account and, after the first negative reports in the newspapers, abstained from flying over the Plitvice lakes, thus hushing the first affair with an anti- NATO background, while the problem itself remained unsolved. As is known, Croatia is a curiously shaped country - elongated and narrow, similar to a "pretzel", as the late Franjo Tudjman used to say – and if the stationing of American bases here is carried through, environmental problems are bound to emerge every time maneuvers are held. Furthermore, the massive presence of troops will effect tourism -there are no examples of a flourishing tourist economy anywhere in the vicinity of large military bases, but the awareness of the problem is still far from being dominant in Croatia, with the exception of Istria where big military bases have been proclaimed unwelcome ten years ago. "They do not treat us as equal partners, but rather as a dump, a storage for the outdated technologies or a testing range strategically dependent upon their interests" is the opinion of Ivan Jokic, the leader of the Green oriented organization from Zadar which responded vigorously to the exercise. "It's regrettable that the Croatian government agrees to co-operation and negotiations on such a basis."

According to a theory essentially similar to a theory of conspiracy, it is possible that Croatia is a willing victim of tourist and economic lobbies of certain more developed and economically stronger tourist countries, plotting to turn a country yearning to prove itself as an everlasting antemurale christianitatis into a site for questionable or even dangerous military maneuvers performed in the vicinity of alluring tourist locations. "Starting with Cernobil to the tragedy of Kursk, all of us bear witness to the actual safety of the nuclear submarines that have recently made port in the Adriatic. Try to imagine a similar incident in the Adriatic! Such a thing is highly plausible and in that case we could indeed bid farewell to the future", says Jokic.

His opinion is shared by a number of experts of a different profile. "If the NATO countries and their public had any interest in these troops and their maneuvers, Croatia would have to bear a fair share of toiling and moiling before hosting them. But, not only is noone keen on playing host to such exercises, but in the majority of the NATO countries the public is strongly opposed to the lasting presence of the American forces on their soil. The negative attitude of the public towards the American military bases in Spain, Italy, Greece... is well known", claims dr. Sinisa Tatalovic, an expert on national and international security from the Faculty of Political Science in Zagreb.

"Croatia is politically too week to assert its attitudes or visions", says Jokic. "This presents an objective difficulty, but without a pronounced self-confidence, the problem will prove to be more serious with every passing day. Of course, there is always the subjective factor to be taken into account as well - the shady morality of certain individuals, a common problem of many societies in transition, because control over these countries is best achieved through the likes of such and by means of bribery, corruption, etc. The former authorities were not free from these ills, neither are the present, nor is it to be expected from any of the future ones." If "military drills" swell in number - in other words, if instances of nonchalant crashing of the nuclear submarines into the Adriatic or some other forms of demonstrating force continue, the environmental organizations plan to stage protests in line with the scenarios already employed in the West.

According to Sinisa Tatalovic, there is also call for action on the part of the civil society sector aimed at instituting a measure of control over the politicians. "In countries with a long democratic tradition and high standards of political culture, the politicians and the soldiers are very cautious in exploiting natural resources because they are aware that the non-governmental sector is keeping vigilant guard over them and that possible blunders will soon be exposed and sanctioned. In this field too, Croatia needs yet to take the initial steps in order to make use of its potential and apply the experience of democratic countries. The reaction of the Croatian public and environmental organizations in connection with the Slunj 2000 maneuvers was the first big step forward in this direction. The public in Croatia lacks knowledge of the western experience with military bases. The worst possible way to gain it would be by gaining it at one's own expense. Or at the expense of Plitvice, for that matter. Jets flying over Yellowstone are inconceivable, simply because the law bars them from doing so. Similar laws should be passed in Croatia as well.

BORIS RASETA

(AIM)