MOTHERS OF VUKOVAR

AIM, ZAGREB, April 4, 1995 Many in Croatia wonder whether any of those who were taken prisoner in Vukovar are still living. As generally well known, towards the end of November 1991, after this city was captured by Serb paramilitary units (Chetniks) and the regular Serb army, the captured wounded, the defenders and other local people, were taken in a "direction unknown" and no trace of them was ever found. There were a thousand and three hundred of them. Among them - eighty children about whose whereabouts noone still knows anything, nor whether they are still alive. "But, the names of the criminals are known though" - as a mother, Ana Fikes, said during the visit of a delegation of Mothers of Disappeared Croat Soldiers to Washington D.C. the year before last. Several months after the fall of Vukovar, members of families who have survived, organized themselves in order to be more efficient in searching for their husbands, sons and daughters. The most prominent among such associations is the one called the Mothers of Vukovar.

For four years already they do not know the destiny of their sons, daughters and husbands. They are embittered, but not without hope. The first year was difficult, but expectations of good news made the days filled with sadness somewhat easier. As time passed, hopes faded away. But, not the hope that they will ever see their dear ones again, as wrongly presumed. The hope in the good intentions of the state faded. They nowadays keep wondering what their truth and the truth of Vukovar actually is. Whether they were sacrificed for the sake of recognition or everything was after all paved with good intentions. "We have the impression that this regime would be much happier if Vukovar had never even existed. They are afraid that the tombs of Vukovar may start to talk. We have been sacrificed for recognition of Croatia" - mother Marija says.

They have been visiting "world centres of power" for years, various humanitarian organizations, embassies, governments and institutions of "God's governors on earth". They met only with "disappointment, irony, hypocrisy and indifference". It is clear to them that this is how it must be in the world which, until recently, knew nothing about their suffering. But they cannot understand that "our Government has given up the search" and that the state "almost never meets them halfways". Everyone should remember the event when Vladimir Seks interrupted a last year's session of the Assembly Chamber of Representatives after the "Women in Black" addressed several markedly didactic messages from the Assembly gallery to the "honourable House": "Did Vukovar and Slavonija have to fall for this". And then: "The whole of Croatia will fall, if you go on like this". And finally: "Shame on you in the face of our dead".

It is interesting that the state promised time and again that it would exhume Ovcara. Nothing happened. The Mothers visited Belgrade too, the Federal Secretariat of National Defence. They were told there that there were no more war prisoners in Serbia. Although there were information in foreign media about brothels in the vicinity of Pancevo and Sremska Mitrovica where women seen last on the day Vukovar fell "serve" the customers. All the Mothers receive from the state are praises, honours, expressions of condolence, sympathy and "warm wishes". The Office of the Republic of Croatia in Belgrade sent a letter to them saying that they were "together in their thoughts" with them ("What are thought good to me, I want my children"/ a mother from Vukovar says). President Tudjman was invited to be the patron of their children. They still do not know why this did not happen.

Along with the honours and "warm wishes" goes the fact that the Catholic Church in Croatia intends to build a Sanctuary called "Saint Mother of Liberty" in memory of those who have fallen for Homeland. It would be built in Jarun. Father Petar Simic, the promoter of building of the Sanctuary, believes that this place could become "the heart of unity of all of us who are aware that we have achieved freedom by the sacrifice of the sons of the Croat people". The letter about the idea of the Sanctuary arrived to their address too. Mother Marija lost her son and husband in the tragedy of Vukovar. Her only wish is to see them again and to live with them as they used to live. About the idea of a sanctuary, she says: "We do not need it. They also say in the letter that we should spread the creed. We are no Jehovahs to spread creed. This Sanctuary might be good for their dogs to piss on it".

Nowadays, the Mothers represent that symbol of suffering and pains which is identical and inseparable from the suffering of entire Croatia. This opinion has been deep-rooted in Croatia for a long time now, although everyone knows that in fact it is not as it is presented to the public. A symbol is a symbol and always remains just a symbol. Political history teaches that victims become victims at least twice. First, the victims of the tragedy, and for the second time, victims of banality and collective oblivion of those in the name of whom the sacrifice was made. Such attitude of the surroundings towards their problems hurts them the most. The Mothers of Vukovar have their premises in Zagreb, on the ground floor of a building used by other associations of victims of this war (disabled veterans, refugees, families of the disappeared). They were given all technical equipment necessary for their activities. But, they think they have been deceived. "We are not naive any more. Noone from the Assembly ever came to see us. We know what they think. They have given us the association just to leave them alone".

Josip Jugec is the coordinator of the Association. He was in the detention camp in Sremska Mitrovica for nine months. He says: "Money and sanctuaries cannot resolve the problems". And adds: "We do not know whether they will ever be solved. We do not ask for much. Just to see things begin to be put in order." He lives in a small room of a hotel in Zagreb with a large family. "I don't need a club to solve my problems. Certain individuals from thew state administration offered me as a solution to proclaim my son dead and get a flat on the ground of that. Naturally I refused." What bothers them the most is that the state had promised to identify the corpses from Ovcara, but never carried out the promise. They are told "that it is impossible to do it now". In Croatia, it is nothing unusual to use the refugees for better pursuance of this or that policy. "When the authorities need to score points, they refer to us. When we refer to them for a favour, they tell us: Cope with the problems on your own" Kruno, the office worker of the Association, says.

"Even the remains of a burnt down home is home". This is what a refugee from Vukovar, Slavica Kumpf, wrote in Vjesnik. But, years of loneliness and disappointment either cleared the heads or enraged many of them. Some think that they "will not go back to the ashes" where their homes used to be and that they have "noone to build their homes with". They are suspicious about the current peace processes and do not hope to return, when "they just talk about the oil pipeline and the railroad". They believe that people are prior to railway. They just wish to know the truth, whatever it may be. In that sense, the Mother of Vukovar, Katica Majic, spoke at the session of the Assembly Chamber of the Representatives, on December 6 last year: "Our internees and disappeared are mere figures for many of you, but not for us parents. We believe that most of you have your own children and that you are worried that they do not catch cold or hurt themselves. And what about us? For almost four years we live in exile, mutilated and afflicted, with a single thought: are they alive and in what condition, or were they liquidated and scattered around fields and tombs, thrown into the Danube. Which of these can one accept? How much longer can one stand the suspense? We demand to know the truth, because this agony has gone beyond all bounds."

That is how Mother Katica Majic speaks. The President of the Association of Refugees of Croatia, Mato Simic also speaks about the truth: "The refugees have never been told the truth, and it alone can resolve a number of problems". "The public knows nothing about the political games concerning the fall of Vukovar, but let us hope that the day will come for that" (a refugee from Vukovar). When speaking of the truth, the following opinion can also be heard: "There are many unfortunate people in this war, both on our and on their side. We believe that this misfortune will connect us sooner or later". Such connecting obviously does not suit anyone. If it did, it would be hard to understand the lingering with the search for the disappeared citizens of Vukovar. This issue is skillfully evaded by both parties. The latest data of the International Red Cross say that the majority are in prisons and work camps of the unrecognized Serb Krajinas. The minority are not among the living for a long time. All that is left for us to do is to finish off with the lyrical notes of Slavica Kumpf (Vjesnik, April 1994): "And the deserted Slavonian villages will come to life again, and the fields eager for busy hands will yield rich fruit again. And there will be music and dancing again. Our Vukovar which is deserted now will also come to life again. And the Danube will be beautiful and blue again. ... And every spring, New Vukovar will be adorned with the blooming white and pink chestnut trees again. The bells from bell-towers of all Vukovar churches will chime again. They will chime in honour of the killed and for joy of the survivers. ... Vukovar will live. And it will be beautiful again... And there will be peace".

ALEN ANIC