EVICTIONS CONTINUE

AIM, Split, December 20, 1995

"We have not experienced anything of the kind even back in 1991 from the Chetniks in Knin", 60 year old professor Ivan Velic said, who is one of the Knin Croats who had at the time exchanged apartments with the Serbs from Split, and who are now being evicted from their Split apartments by members of the Croat Army. Cynics would say that this is just a logical outcome of brutal violence and violations of fundamental rights many unfortunate inhabitants of former army apartments in Croatia were exposed to.

When evictions as an efficient method of silent ethnic cleansing, as the former special rapporteur of the UN Commission of Human Rights, Tadeusz Mazowiecki qualified them, had mostly been completed, after the Serbs, the Croats became victims of this evil practice. Nevertheless, although the assessment of evictions as a method of silent ethnic cleansing of the Serbs undoubtedly holds, in some previous cases others were its victims, even Croats, because apart from having the function of ethnic cleansing, army apartments are, of course, a very tangible interest and business in which all possible means are used - ethnic membership being just one of them.

Terror of evictions according to which Split was at the very top for cases of this sad Croat practice, was recently enriched by 13 new cases which had a happy end, at least for the time being, but which due to this very fact, open new dilemmas of this burdensome problem which had so far affected about 5000 families or probably several tens thousand people.

In the latest Split cases of eviction and attempts of eviction, this time, almost without exceptions, families of Knin Croats were the victims, who had once exchanged their apartments in Knin mostly with retired army officers from Split in order to avoid unbearable pressure. As they all stress, they had done it before the notorious regulation of the Croat Government on the ban of free use of army apartments of the former Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) was adopted in December 1991, but had retroactive effect since July 24 that same year, and made life miserable to many. At the moment they had exchanged their apartments, there was no regulation, so like many previous victims, all they can do is seek court protection of their rights. In the meantime, however, things are most frequently taken care of by Croat soldiers in violent and brutal evictions who claim that the apartments are allegedly property of the Ministry of Defence and assigned to them.

This is exactly what happened in the Split case when members of the elite Fourth Guards' Brigade, in groups of five to ten soldiers headed by members of some famous "housing sub-committee" certain Barac and Zupic and presenting themselves as representatives of the "law", broke into apartments of unfortunate former inhabitants of Knin, threatening, demolishing doors, throwing things and people out (e.g. in the apartment of Dr Ostojic, a two-month old infant even) and moving new tenants in immediately, while the civilian police helplessly watched. When such evictions succeed (and very rarely they do not), the evicted tenants even when they are holders of positive court verdicts, as experience shows, hardly ever manage to get back into their apartments. In this case, though, after the engagement of the activists of the Croat Helsinki Committee and its President Ivan Zvonimr Cicak in person, Commander of Military Police of the Croat Army, general Mato Lausic imperatively ordered the MP's to intervene and return the former tenants, which was actually carried out, contrary to numerous previous similar promises and so-called interventions, when the MP's were also called but actively or passively assisted successful completion of evictions. But, not even this order of the head of Croat Military Police stopped new invasions of apartments. Two days later, the same crew broke into other five apartments and this time, as unofficially claimed, only after an intevention of the Head of General Headquarters of the Croat Army, general Zvonimir Cervenko himself, their tenants were protected. President of the Croat Helsinki Committee, Ivan Zvonimir Cicak declared that he was pleasantly surprised by the fact that military police vigorously reacted after the intervention from above and that he hoped that this could be an indication of a final settling down of circumstances concerning forcible breaking into apartments. Miso Rogosic, an activist of the Helskiniki Committee from Split, however, warned that all problems could not be resolved by interventions but only by operation of the legal state, because it had all been initiated by someone's interventions in the first place, that is, that soldiers who apparently took things in their own hands uncontrolled were actually supported by Military Housing Commission or some of their members, and the Split case was the outcome of a similar development.

Knin Croats who were exposed to this violence claim that they had at first tried to seek protection of the office of the President of the Housing Commission in Zagreb, Vinko Adzic, but apart from having denied the authenticity of his own signature on the documents used as pretexts in writing for the evictions, he did nothing. Representatives of humanitarian organization for protection of human rights called "Open Eyes" who were present at the latest few raids into Split apartments, presented interesting data in their report, showing that the President of the Military Housing Commission in Split, Sveto Parlov, in fact sided with the soldiers, inducing them to continue with the evictions even after interventions of the Military Police, claiming that they had a right to do it. He withdrew only after a threat of the criminal military inspector that he would instigate criminal proceedings against him. Equally interesting is the fact quoted by the same organization that both family Bumber threatened by eviction and Croat soldier Ujevic who tried to move into their apartment claimed that President of the Army Housing Commission Parlov was the one who had given them guarantees for the same apartment.

Probably such data serve as arguments to those who claim that evictions are approved by official agencies, and even that the trail leads straight to the top of the Ministry of Defence. After all, President of the Croat Helsinki Committee, Ivan Zvonimir Cicak was once sued for having publicly indicated the Ministry of Defence as a hotbed of corruption and robbery when speaking of army apartments. And according to sources of the Helsinki Committee, head of the General Headquarters of the Croat Army, general Zvonimir Cervenko said on the occasion of Split cases, that the 4th Split Brigade was out of control. If that is correct, it only reveals the anarchic face of parallel centres of power which rule in the Croat Army and which showed so many times before - from evictions to serious crimes after operation "Storm". But there are quite a few of those who warn that the whole Croat Army is out of regular political control and that it is simply untouchable.

What has actually saved the threatened tenants this time is hard to guess. Has anyone assessed that this had to do with people whose homes in Knin had been destroyed, damaged or already illegally taken by Croat soldiers, and that they should after all be spared a new calvary. Or was it assessed that at this moment Croatia did not need another international scandal which would just remind of all former cases of terror and violence. Or again, perhaps someone has assessed that even that terror should end. The latter is the hardest to believe, though, although even the Helsinki Committee, in its public statement on the occasion of the Human Rights Day, especially stressed this problem warning that evictions could be treated as a war crime pursuant to a provision of the Statue of the Hague International Tribunal, and that not only those who organize and actually commit them are responsible, but also administrative agencies which do nothing to prevent them. At the same time, the Helsinki Committee of Croatia claims that evictions are carried out under direct auspices of the Housing Commission of the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Croatia.

But, although The Croat Helsinki Committee actually made enormous efforts to prevent violence in Croatia, hardly anything can be achieved with such a qualification. The greatest part of the job has been completed. For example, only in Split, there were about 350 successful evictions. But the activists for human rights claim that this number includes only evictions which were registered, and that a much greater number, maybe even three to four times greater, has been carried out far from the public and activists for protection of human rights. This dirty business which was often justified by the alleged needs of the victims of the Homeland War affected this very category of the population the most, and many made a very profitable business of army apartments. There was no limits to the means used, not even "rent-a-disabled", as sarcastically the President of the Dalmatian Committee for protection of human rights, Tonci Majic once put it.

The whole problem of army apartments is a shameful stain on the Croat state. And not only due of the evictions, but also due to the Law on sale of army apartments which discriminates against certain categories of the population. Army housing authorities have the exclusive right to decide who is eligible to buy an army apartment. Real objectives and competences of this Law will be better known when the sale of army apartments ends. Rumour goes that for a long time lists have existed of those who were deprived of this right for various reasons, perhaps less ethnic and political than for the sake of obtaining these valuable and high-quality apartments for the Croat Army. All this does not mean that, after most of the almsot 40 thousand army apartments are sold (it is planned to make in this way about 170 million German marks allegedly for resolving housing problems of the soldiers and victims of the Homeland War), there will be no more final forcible cleansing, because settling accounts in court lasts too long, although they may even be completed in favour of the victims.

And while the Croat regime has shown its well-known face and its real intention concerning this matter, which was quite tersely summarized in an Assembly discussion on army apartments by the favourite author at court Ivan Aralica, when he praized each move that helped at least a single Serb emigrate, the Croat opposition did not acquire any fame concerning it either. It mostly passed this matter over in silence or as a Split humanist, Dr Nikola Viskovic, put it neatly, "silently prattled" about dramatic violations of human rights and the legal state. It is worth remembering that the leader of the Croat opposition Drazen Budisa thought it fit to devote one of his television appearances to illegal evictions only after it had happened to Stipe Mesic who was, due to the "Big Chief"'s ill humour, forced to move out of his Assembly apartment and return to his wife's. This was good enough reason for his claiming that the Croat legal state was deeply in mire. The fact that thousands of former brutal evictions in which people were not moved to their wife's apartments but out into the street (and most frequently out of the state as well), was not a good enoyugh reason for the leading personalities from the opposition to stand out in public and say anything, and it shows the true reason why the Croat state is in mire.

STOJAN OBRADOVIC