SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC - THE ADVOCATES FOR THE CROATIAN CAUSE

In Geneva, S. Milosevic declared that Bosnian towns

• Vitez, Busovaca and Travnik - were altogether Croatian. According to the 1991 census, however, there were 40-49 per cent of Croats in these places. Milosevic's struggle for "the Croatian cause" in Bosnia and Herzegovina, his understanding with Tudjman, remind one of the old-time offer of an accord between the Ushashe leader, Pavelic, and that of the Chetniks, D. Mihajlovic.

AIM, Belgrade, January 29, 1994

That Milosevic would wage war against the Croats was clear to everybody right after his notorious speech made at Gazimestan. Would it be in the name of supercommunism or nationalism, it did not really matter. And that is exactly what happened. But, unfortunately, not only against the Croats! But, nevertheless, that this Serbian "chief" would ever fight for the "Croatian cause", concerning the alleged territories of the Croats in B&H, would not have even crossed the mind of any sensible person. But, that is exactly what the Beloved Leader did to the "satisfaction of his Serbs from the river Kupa to the river Timok, from Horgos to Dragas! Namely, after the recent talks in Geneva, Milosevic stated: "Sacrificing their own interests for the sake of peace, the Serbs have decided to fulfill the conditions and they adopted them and came to Geneva to sign a peace agreement. But what happened? The Moslems refused it. (...) And I will tell you that I know very well why. The Moslems do not wish to interrupt their offensive in Central Bosnia, because they wish to push back the Croats and level with the ground Vitez, Busovaca and Novi Travnik, to conquer Mostar and gain an exit to the sea coast, and this is altogether Croatian."!?! Those, who find it difficult to believe that the "Serbian political father" is interceding in behalf of the Croats and in favour of allegedly their territories, should be reminded of some of his earlier statements. What has really happened?

"There will be no agreement on account of the third party!"

Some time before, while the Moslems and the Croats marched together against the Serbs in B&H, Milosevic had refused each and every joint proposal of theirs for attaining peace, under the pretext that "there can be no agreement between two parties against the third"! What is more, he stressed with special attention that peace in B&H can be accomplished only through agreement of all three nations in the sense of their complete equality. As concerning him, he said, he would accept any such agreement, and he would accept it only if it were a joint agreement. From a man of principles, one would expect such an approach in all other cases. But, things have obviously changed! Now when the distribution of allies has changed, when the Serbs and the Croats have completely revealed their intentions, not only concerning the ethnic partition of B&H, but also the partition which is more than ethnic (from the aspect of "historical", "meta-ethnic", and strategic" criteria), leaving absolutely no chance for the Moslems to survive in the future, Milosevic not only sees nothing wrong in an alliance of two parties against the third, but advocates in fgavour of his new, Croatian allies and friends, or as some would have said in Bosnia, he is matchmaking for the like of him! That Milosevic is acting on behalf of what is "altogether Croatian", but that he knows neither "well" nor why" it appears to be so, and that he is deluding both the domestic and the international public, is best illustrated by the very examples of the municipalities the Moslems are trying to "level" and "conquer": Vitez, Busovaca, Novi Travnik, and Mostar.

Complete lack of knowledge of demography!

According to the ethnic composition of the B&H population in 1991, there were between 40 and 49 per cent of Croats in the municipalities of Vitez and Busovaca.

To be more precise, out of the total of 27,728 inhabitants of the mnunicipality of Vitez, there were 12,679 Croats. In the municipality of Busovaca among the 18,883 inhabitants, tehre were 9,089 Croats. Therefore, it cannot be that these two municipalities are "altogether" Croatian, as the self-confident Serbian leader claims.

Indeed, according to the 1991 census, these municipalities are a case of mixed population according to their national composition, because the number of Moslems also varied from 40 to 49 per cent! There were 11,471 Moslems in Vitez, and in Busovaca there were 8,486 of them, meaning that the Croats outnumbered them by only 1,208 in Vitez, and by just 603 in Busovaca!

These are also the municipalities which are rated sixth according not only to the comparatively high percentages of usually two out of the three nations, but according also to the fact that they are among the greatest number of municipalities (as many as 20) in B&H with an almost equal share of the nations in their mixed populations, the fact which especially shows what a severe crime it is to divide Bosnia, and how many crimes need to be committed in order to actually divide it. As concerning Novi Travnik, this town is not "completely" Croatian either. The percentage of Croats among the population of this municipality was 30 to 39. According to the latest census, the percentage of Moslems was the same. In fact, out of the total number of inhabitants of Novi Travnik (30,624), 12,127 were Croats, and 11,649 Moslems, showing that there were hardly 478 more Croats in this town. Similar is the case with Mostar, with the only difference that the "majority" in this town were the Moslems (the difference amounts to only 1,283 citizens of Moslem nationality), just like the Croats in the mentioned municipalities of Vitez, Busovaca and Novi Travnik. In this town, which used to be famous for its bridge, and it seems will be even more famous without it in the future, the number of the Moslems and the Croats was equal - between 30 and 39 per cent (there were 43,931 Moslems, and 42,648 Croats out of the total of 120,067 inhabitants Mostar had before the war), so that the allegation that Mostar is "altogether" Croatian can even less hold water. Practically, entire B&H is like that, neither Croatian, nor Serbian, nor Moslem, but it is certainly, both Moslem, and Serbian, and Croatian! Therefore, to claim without restriction that something is Croatian, Serbian, or Moslem, with absolutely no knowledge of the fundamental numeric indicators of this entirely ethnically mixed population, can be done only by the very same type of mind which has led to the crimes and the fratricidal war in the space of the former Yugoslavia. But, one should not be too surpised, since Milosevic knows "well" only as much of the statistics a tourist who made his journey to the seaside through Bosnia during summer vacations needed to know. His "tourist knowledge" did not stop him from claiming that something is "altogether" Croatian even though the facts prove differently. I only wonder how could this modern leader of the people pass the examination with the communists in their chief subject "learn about your country, so that you can love it better". The destiny of B&H is indeed, tragi-comical, because those who know nothing about the percentages of the ethnical composition of its population are now making decisions about its partition.

Like Draza and Pavelic!

For such a thing, it is necessary to have morality. In our recent political history, there are no similar examples, except, perhaps, the example of a "sufficiently good" Serb who used to work in the interest of the Croats (!?) - the offer made by Draza Mihailovic to Ante Pavelic in 1945!

The essntial similarity of the two cases of Serbo-Croatian evil merry-go-round is striking, although they occurred in different historical contexts.

Just as Milosevic is working in favour of obtaining territories for Croatia on account of the Moslems in B&H, without any idea about geography or statistics, so did Draza, towards the end of the war offer collaboration to Pavelic "with the aim to lead a common struggle against the partisans", striving for "the conclusion of a desired arrangement". Calling it all a "deal to the benefit of the people", "advantageous for both nations", he offered at the same time "strict abiding by everything arranged" that would be accepted in "implementation of the projected agreement"!?! Draza hoped that Ante would "avail himself of every opportunity in the future and that he would always know how to serve the interests of our fatherland", not forgetting to promise to pay tributeto him for the results. The fate willed that these two scoundrels, one Croat and one Serb, did not have the time to serve to the benefit of "our fatherland". What will the fate be of the two current ones - is still completely uncertain. Unfortunately, there are no forces, either in Serbia or in Croatia which could put a stop to their doing. That is what makes the destiny of the two people, the Serbs and the Croats even more tragic. It remains yet to be seen what Franjo will do for "our fatherland".

SLOBODAN INIC