A NEW LEADER OF THE CROATS IN B&H

AIM, ZAGREB, April 04,1994.

When he was elected President of the Presidential Council of Herzeg-Bosnia, in Livno at the Assembly of the Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia, Kresimir Zubak, although little known in the Croatian public until then, did not immediately attract its attention. Primarily because it was still preoccupied with Mate Boban and his destiny. Namely, since Boban's relieving of office was shrouded in the formula of freezing his function of president of the Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia and the election of the Presidential Council as his substitute during the suspension of his function, the media and public were preoccupied with interpreting what that manouever meant. Although it was clear to most analysts that Boban was being relieved of office, they could not, nevertheless definitively conclude whether he was losing all influence and positions in Herzeg-Bosnia or whether he would continue to pull the strings from the background and be absent only from the negotiations with representatives of the Moslems and the international community.

When it definitely became clear that Boban had actually been excommunicated from Herzeg-Bosnian politics, and when he ended up in Zagreb, where he is working as one of the directors of the Tobacco Factory of Zagreb (he recently complained to a journalist that his associates of late and numerous "friends" had quickly left him, leaving him to ponder his political destiny all alone), more information started seeping through to the public about Kresimir Zubak.

In the meantime, Zubak speedily embarked on negotiations with the Moslems, under international patronage, following as a shadow the Croatian foreign minister, Mate Granic, and leading Croat representatives from Bosnia and Hercegovina. Occasionally making short statements, without superfluous words and emotions, calmly and almost always in the same even tone of voice, with a stony face on which no emotions could be discerned, Zubak mainly appeared in the role of signatory of the agreements which quickly followed one another between the Bosnian-Herzegovinian Croats and Moslems. The crown of everything was when he together with Haris Silajdzic signed the Draft Constitution of the future Croat-Moslem federation in Washington, which he also discharged as a routine affair, without visible emotions and big words. Almost as if he were a regular guest of the White House and US President Clinton.

Although he spent most of this period travelling between world capitals and Herzeg-Bosnian villages, with stopovers at Zagreb, he managed to give a few interviews, in which he spoke little of himself, but most often interpreted the contents of the agreement with the Moslems, making assessments of the past and current Croatian policy in Bosnia. The only personal particulars known about him are that he was born in Doboj, on November 29, 1947, that he is a jurist, that he was the President of the Higher Court in Doboj, and assistant secretary in the Secretariat for Justice and Administration of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

After the attack of the Serbs on Usora, a Croatian enclave in Central Bosnia in which the alliance between the Croats and Moslems was never brought in question during the war, Zubak leaves Doboj to become a combatant in the ranks of the Croatian Defense Council. He was wounded in battle and he also held the office of Vice-President of the Croatian Defense Council of Herzeg-Bosnia and of Minister of Justice in its Government. Zubak was never a member of the Croatian Democratic Union, which does not mean that its policy is not close to him. He himself says that he is not a member of HDZ, because his judicial function is incompatible with party membership. Regarding his family it is only known that it left Doboj together with him, and that they are living in Sibenik as refugees.

The stands of Kresimir Zubak on events in Bosnia and Herzegovina and on the current process of the creation of a Croat-Moslem federation on part of B&H territory are almost identical to those currently being advocated by Croatian President Tudjman and Croatian policy in power. Zubak too speaks about the continuity of Croatian policy, covering by that continuity both the Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia and the present agreement on the cantonal set-up of Bosnia and Hercegovina. Like Tudjman, Zubak also claims that the creation of Herzeg-Bosnia was a historical necessity: "If the Croats did not have the Herzeg-Bosnia they had, they would not not be in a position to discuss the Constitution of B&H on an euqitable footing and to be guaranteed the status of a constituent nation by that Constitution".

Zubak, in contrast to other Croatian politicians, adds other arguments to that: "If you do not have a state community, at least provisional, you cannot control the army. The army cannot exist without the authorities, and we badly needed an army. Cardinal Kuharic asked me the other evening: "Why don't you do something to punish those among you who commit excesses?" That is the best proof that we needed state authoritiy. Without state authority could not control the army, nor could we combat criminal and smuggling". In this, although most often in a single sentence and offhandedly, Zubak does not avoid stating publicly: "We do not deny that there were some among us who made mistakes and who should be called to account for them".

However, a positive stand towards Herzeg-Bosnia does not prevent Zubak from calmly advocating the current solution also: the creation of a Croat-Moslem federation. Although he constantly repeats that Herzeg-Bosnia will function until the agreement on the federation is implemented in full, which is, in any case, written down in the transitional provisions of the Constitution adopted by the Croats and Bosnians a few days ago in Sarajevo. Moreover, Zubak undertook to convince those dissatisfied with the creation of the federation in Herzeg-Bosnia that this was in the interest of the Croatian people.

In other words that these interests were respected and satisfied. It seems that he is successful in this at the moment. Naturally, with the support of Croatia. Zubak also started unifying overall Croatian policy in Bosnia and Herzgovina, even that part which was openly opposing the policy of Herzeg-Bosnia in recent months. After the assembly session in Sarajevo after which the B&H federation was proclaimed, Zubak stated: "I think that we have achieved a high level of political unity. We had mutual contacts for quite a while, but shall talk in the future more often and exchange opinions so as to more easily reach common grounds. In the first place on the relationship towards B&H and on ways to make B&H the homeland of the Croatian people too".

In such a Bosnia and Herzegovina Zubak also sees the Bosnian Serbs: " I think that it would not be contrary to the interests of the Croatian people for the Serbs to enter the federation as an equal partner", he stated in an interview to the Zagreb "Globus" some twenty days ago. It was the "Globus" which recently named Kresimir Zubak as the most important champion of the interests of the Bosnian-Herzegovinian Croats within the ranks of the new Bosnian Croat leaders - religious, political and military ones - those striving to convince the Bosnian-Herzegovinian and world public that the Croats are for the preservation of an integral Bosnia and Herzegovina. That the "Globus" is right proves the nomination of Zubak as the first president of the Croat-Moslem federation. Even more so as after the inititiave coming from Herzeg-Bosnia this nomination was accepted by the multi-party Club of the Croatian Delegates in the B&H Assembly. This, naturally, further reinforces the position of Kresimir Zubak and makes him the central political figure of the Bosnian-Herzegovinian Croats.

ZORAN DASKALOVIC