WHY DID TUDJMAN SAVE MESIC

Using his own authority, Tudjman won another truce in the Croatian Democratic Community (HDZ), and thus perhaps postponed a final split of the party, which has now become even more profound, since not only the members of the opposition criticized him in the Assembly, but membres of his own party as well. Tudjman is obviously aware that the right moment for removing Mesic from the office has not come yet, because he is not sure that the ratio of forces in the Assembly is such that the outcome would be exactly as he wishes it to be. He does not need a war against Mesic and Manolic, among other, because they could be the main lever in the normalization of Croatian-Serbian relations. It is difficult to assume that there could be more suitable persons in the HDZ for reconstruction of bridges between Zagreb and Belgrade than these two men and the group around them. Surely, noone like Mercep or Vukojevic could do it.

AIM, Zagreb, Jan. 30, 1994

Stipe Mesic did not chair the last-week's session of the House of Representatives of the Croatian Assembly, but he was not away skiing either, as Josip Manolic claimed, nor was he anywhere abroad, as the special statement of the Presidency of the HDZ read, meant to deny rumours that President Tudjman had demanded from Mesic to resign. He was in Zagreb all the time, officially on sick-leave due to a minor surgery, but he spent most of the time while the session lasted in his Chairmen's office, following the course of the session on TV. He even walked down the corridors of the Assembly building several times, and even showed up in the hall on Thursday. This role of "the naughty boy" of Croatian politics intensified the gossip and the rumours about his removal from the office, which was first announced by the "Globus" weekly, referring to a very prominent source.

Therefore, many wondered what the truth was? The course of the events, especially those which took place behind closed doors, showed that the informer of the "Globus" was right, but the whole thing was a little premature and exposed too soon leading to counter-effects. Namely, as published by the newspaper "Novi list" from Rijeka on Monday, January 24, a meeting of the HDZ Assembly representatives was held, and Antun Vrdoljak, Ante Kutle, Ivan Milas, and indirectly Vladimir Seks and Ivic Pasalic, opened the issue of Mesic's further chairing of the Assembly. According to that source, Antun Vrdoljak was the severest critic of Mesic, accusing him of having "instructed" a high official of the Council of Europe for anti-Croatian accusations. Mesic was not present at the meeting, although he was in the building, but it was later determined that he participated in the "second half", presided by Tudjman himself. In a conversation with Mesic, we learnt that the meeting was turbulent, but that another truce was agreed, and that Tudjman himself insisted on the unity of the party. Thanks to the "HDZ Gazette", what Tudjman had said at the closed meeting soon became known, and the essence of the dispute can be easily derived from it.

After he had given his version of the historical development of the idea of Croatia's statehood, Tudjman determined that only through "unity of even the ultimately opposite extremes, in the territorial and the strategic sense, that is, in the political sense of Croatia, is it possible to reach the goal of having our own state. In the HDZ, we have made this idea come true - that without unity, let me be blunt, of both the Ustashe and the communists, or anti-fascists, partisans and all those people who were linked to the Independent State of Croatia, but opposed to fascism and in favour of liberty and democracy, that without all those who have, in the tedious historical march, come to the awareness that if we wish to persevere as a nation - we must have a state".

"...I must be precise, exactly because some of you keep asking me: why, Mr. President, don't you rid yourself of some of the individuals from the right and the left wing? I answer, that had we not had the HDZ, with the program such as it had, and such as we published again at its Second Assembly, we would not have been able to preserve it. For the sake of Croatia, we need the HDZ such as it is, but gathered more closely around the main program and the verified policy.

But, I decisevely ask our party friends, those mentioned and those who are not,those who are called extreme nationalists, almost Ustashe, to take care and not to obstruct, not to give rise not only to the domestic narrow-minded and liberal opposition, but to all those misled and uninformed in the world. Therefore, I ask our friends who are conditionally called the right wing, to understand that the Ustashe movement is harmful for us in international relations. But I equally and not less decisevely ask those on the so-called left wing, not to talk nonsense that there are pro-Ustashe elements in the HDZ, because this is not less harmful".

"... What they reproached us for, or what they wish to discredit us with in front of the world was that among us there are extreme nationalists, who they point out to linking them even to the renewal of the spirit of the Independent State of Croatia. Various opponents, both of the HDZ and of modern Croatia, from the country and from abroad, point out and swoop down on Vice Vukojevic, Juric, Gordana Turic, for instance; for the same or separate reasons, Mate Boban and Ivan Milas, and especially Antun Vrdoljak. At the same time, there is a wish not only to broaden the differences, but to cause a split, emphasizing vis-a-vis the alleged right wing, the liberal left wing, speculating with the names of Boljkovac and Manolic, Mesic, Vedric and Greguric. Indeed some of our members sometimes forget themselves and give rise to such speculations."

That is how, Tudjman, for the first time, loudly and clearly confirmed that there are two wings within the HDZ, and then said a few things about the actual case: "It is with pleasure that I can say that, when I talked to Stipe Mesic, having explained to him that he had led both domestic and foreign opponents of the true HDZ to count on using him as the Chairman of the Assembly, and all those who do not wish to see this, but some other Croatia, he said that he would never be against the policy of the HDZ and against Tudjman's leadership. Therefore, the calculations about Mesic were wrong and there will be no split in the party because of him. This also refers to Josip Manolic, who says that he is not in favour of a split in the HDZ, although he gave an interview after the meeting of the Presidency, which contains two instances which he should never had said".

Tudjman had won another truce by his authority, and maybe for some time postponed a final split in his party, which, at this moment, after the signing of the Geneva documents has become even more profound, because it was not criticized in the Assembly only by the opposition but by the people from within the party. Tudjman is obviously aware that the the right moment for removing Mesic from office has not yet come, because he is not sure that the ratio of forces in the Parliament is such that everything would turn out the way he would like. And during all that time, neither Mesic, nor Manulic were passive. Mesic even dared give an interview to the "Feral Tribune", the newspaper whose main subject of attacks and mocking is Tudjman personally, and then to the "Novi list" of Rijeka, which was recently proclaimed by Seks (togetehr with the "Globus" and the "Feral") as the main pollutor of the Croatian media space.

And that the differences are not so naive is apparent from two key issues in Croatian politics: human rights and Bosnia&Herzegovina. Answering the question on the, for the time being, alleged crimes of Tomislav Mercepa, Mesic said: "It is better if we function as a state of law than to have our citizens stand trial at the international tribunal. We would be made equal as the agressor in that way. I believe that everybody will learn a lesson from this, and that there are those who are guilty. I do not wish to accuse anyone in advance, but it would be better for them to stand trial in domestic courts than outside our borders."

And to the question how come that Vice Vukojevic, a representative in the Croatian Assembly and the President of one of the Assembly Committees, appears as a brigadier in the uniform of the Croatian Defence Council (HVO), the answer was: "He will have to explain his position in any case, whether he is a representative in the Croatian Assrembly, or a brigadier in another state."

Clear as it may be, but after a turbulent discussion about the "Mercep case", the Assembly nevertheless remained at the conclusion that the case should be investigated, and as concerning the "Vukojevic case" it did not even decide about it, although the discussion was quite intense and the opinions divided. Some believed that it was harmful for Croatia and that it just served the case of those who claimed that Croatian army was directly involved in the B&H war, while the others declared that legally everything was regular, but that it is a question of a political decision. It seems that Tudjman himself will have to resolve this dilemma too, although he had already got over the loss of Vukojevic.

But Tudjman is obviously concerned more about the fact that a dispute about the Croatian-Serbian agreement dragged on in the Assembly, and that he was forced to reaffirm why the Geneva agreement was favourable, that "such an agreement on the normalization of relations, opening of offices, with references to the UN Charter and the basic CSCE documents means, de facto, from the international point of view, actual, although maybe not yet official, but actual recognition. In this sense, we gain a lot. It is clear that Milosevic had agreed to this because it suits him too. And when someone wonders whether he will implement the agreement, I believe that he will, precisely because of the benefit he gains from it - because of the international isolation, because of the economic collapse, but also because the awareness is growing among those circles in Serbia that it is finally necessary to normalize relations between Croatia and Serbia". And if this is the way he interprets the agreement, then it must be clear to him that he does not need the war with Mesic and Manolic who may be the main levers of normalization. It is difficult to assume that within the HDZ there are more appropriate men for reconstructing the bridges between Zagreb and Belgrade than these two men and their group. It certainly could never be anyone like Mercep or Vukojevic.

GOJKO MARINKOVIC