Croatia's Army Enters the Danube Basin

AIM Zagreb, March 14, 2001

Not even a full two weeks after Dejan Andric, a Serb youth, entered military service in the Croatian army, the first to do so of his generation, about 100 members of the Croatian army's Third Guard Brigade arrived in the barracks in Beli Manastir. Thus, in only 10 days, two of the things feared most by local Serbs happened – their children had begun serving in the Croatian army and Croatian troops had come to the Danube Basin.

Dejan Andric, 18, of Soklovac Pustara in Baranja, was seen off by about forty people, relatives and neighbors, as in the the Serb saying, "The Serb is a willing soldier." His father, Jefto, roasted a suckling pig for all those who had come to wish Dejan farewell. Dejan himself became a media star briefly before his departure. Contrary to the majority of his peers, who openly fear serving in the Croatian army, and would rather chose civil service, Dejan has said that he fears nothing and that he looks forward to finishing with his duty once and for all.

A detailed agreement on the region of Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Srem -- signed by Zagreb during the Dayton Accords, on Nov. 13, 1995 -- obliges Croatia to peacefully reintegrate the region, formerly controlled by the U.N. The agreement banned the Croatian army from entering the region for five years, to give the predominantly Serb population time to adapt to life in Croatia.

The Croatian government later bound itself in a Letter of Intent, which set the rules under the provisional administration in the region (officially UNTAES, at that time), to a two-year moratorium on military service for all Serb youths from the Danube Basin, to take effect after peaceful reintegration. The Croatian government entered the Danube Basin on Jan. 15, 1998, although the moratorium had expired in January the year before. In a gesture of good will, the new government began recruiting a year later than stipulated. Thus, the first Serb youths did not begin serving in the military until February this year.

Milos Vojnovic, the head of the Joint Council of Municipalities and a Croatian member of Parliament, and president of the Independent Serb Democratic Party, Vojislav Stanimirovic, were of the opinion that the two-year period was too short for the war wounds in the Danube Basin to heal and that it would be best for the moratorium to be twice longer. Unlike them, Rade Leskovac, the leader of a minor party called the Party of Danube Basin Serbs, known for being the first person to pay his respects to Croat victims in the battle of Vukovar – claimed that some would find the moratorium too short no matter what. Leskovac stubbornly repeated that his two sons, if drafted, would go without any fear of harassment because of their Serb nationality.

"In the army, someone can always harass you. I was harassed in the former Yugoslav People's Army by a Montenegrin, not because I was a Serb, but because he was just that type of person," Leskovac explained.

The arrival of a Croatian army contingent in the Danube Basin in the Baranja barracks in Beli Manastir, however, passed without celebration, as if it were illegal, compared with the farewell parties for Serb youths before entering military service. What the former Croatian Democratic Union-led government would have pompously announced and distastefully exploited in the media, the Ministry of Defense and the Croatian army's general staff were unusually discreet about. The media were not even aware of the event, suggesting that the entire operation had been carried out with the intention of disturbing the Serb population as little as possible.

Several days before the first Croatian army units entered the barracks in Beli Manastir, Defense Minister Jozo Rados was present at the opening of a Defense Office in Vukovar. True, this is a civilian institution that keeps track of military conscripts and new recruits. It is, however, an agency of the defense ministry, which has come to do a job for the military.

The Croatian army has not yet entered the barracks in Vukovar, the only barracks in the Danube Basin apart from that in Beli Manastir. The Ministry of Defense has not said when this will happen, but Croat returnees, who look forward to this, claim it will "certainly" happen before Nov. 18, this year, before the 10th anniversary of the city's fall. Local Serb officials -- chiefly the president of the Joint Council of Municipalities, Milos Vojnovic -- believe that the arrival of the Croatian army in the Danube Basin will not contribute to the stabilization of the region, saying it could have waited a little longer. They endorsed a different approach to the "militarization" of the region -- some proposed that Serb youths be allowed to do their military service in the Danube Basin, in Beli Manastir or Vukovar, in units in which they would constitute a majority. Contrary to the Serbs, Croatian politicians in the Danube Basin say that the coming of the army will have a "psychological effect" and quicken the return of expelled persons, who will feel safer with the Croatian army around.

Ivica Buconjic, the mayor of Beli Manastir, where about 100 Croatian soldiers and officers have already arrived, sees another advantage. He is hoping that the city will profit from the army, as army wages are stable and substantial and soldiers are formidable spenders. He hopes that this will boost local businesses, and thereby bring more to the city budget. That is exactly what the Serbs fear: that increased spending, especially on services, could cause trouble. An ethnically-motivated incident, they say, could shake the frail trust that has been established. They claim that a better way to fill the budget would be to revive the local economy and open new jobs. Men in Croatian army uniforms will soon become a common thing in the streets of Beli Manastir, Vukovar, Ilok and other towns in the region. Even if a while passes before the Croatian army enters Vukovar, youths in Croatian army uniforms will still start appearing in these places, at least every weekend, when young conscripts go home for a nice home-cooked meal and some rest.

Drago Hedl

(AIM)