ZAGREB AND MOSTAR - HAND IN HAND

AIM Zagreb, February 13, 1996

The international community believes that responsibility for last week's riots in Mostar and sabotage of Dayton Agreements lies with Zagreb. Italian foreign Minister, Ms. Agnelli, immediately hurried to President Tudjman, and German Minister Kinkel accuses him directly, angry in advance that the Croat President will again try to give an excuse that he cannot control Herzegovina. Is that true? Who actually rules in Herzegovina? And who is, therefore, responsible for people rioting in the streets there, which almost ended in lynching of the European administrator, in which his car was shot at, probably with the intention to stop him and end his efforts, if in no other way, by ultimate means.

It is no secret that there has been a strategic accord between Zagreb and Mostar for a long time. Secessionists from Herzegovina and imperialists from Zagreb had no problem in finding a common language, turning all Croats in Bosnia & Herzegovina into hostages of their policy of clinging Herzegovina to Croatia. This was their common objective.

In implementation of this policy Tudjman relied, as one of the unformal bosses in Herzegovina puts it, on "seven secretaries of the League of Communist Youth of Yugoslavia". This is a mocking allusion to the fact that the leaders of Herzeg-Bosnia, and now of the Federation, from Zubak to Prlic, held similar posts in the former regime as they do nowadays. Due to their past and their present, they are obedient Tudjman's pawns. Foreign media have lately observed that Zubak has power just formally, while Herzegovina is in fact ruled by someone else.

It is claimed that it is Mate Boban, former first man of Herzeg-Bosnia withdrawn to Zagreb after the interruption of the Croat-Muslim war. In fact, it is a group of very picturesque characters, legionnaries, criminals from the local and the international circles, extremists of various kinds, war profiteers of all colours, but mostly black. They openly refer to Ustashism and they are closely linked to the Herzegovina lobby in Zagreb whose pronounced chief is the Croat minister of defence, Gojko Susak. They have no formal authorities, but Herzegovina is moaning cramped firmly in their hold.

Herzegovina is ruled by mafia - this assessment is heard more and more often recently. European administrator of Mostar, Hans Koschnick, also emphasizes metastasized crime which is impossible to check. On the occasion of the latest incidents, Mr Koschnick says that the problem is not in Zagreb, but in Croat police in Western Mostar, but fails to say who controls it.

The Croat regime is closely connected with Herzegovina mobsters. It enabled them to get rich by its decisions, but most frequently it also made a profit on them. For example, peasants in Croatia threaten that they will protest because Croatia has ruined its own agriculture by stimulating Herzegovina food smugglers. Josip Pankretic, peasants' tribune, claims that the Croat budget suffered damage way amounting to a billion kunas which is approximately 270 million German marks. Vice Vukojevic who has usurped the role of a spokesman of the Herzegovina extremists, claims that crime taking place in Mostar, is actually initiated in Zagreb.

In any case, rich upstarts from Herzegovina loaded with money, have bought a large portion of the sea-coast, hotels and tourist facilities, Dubrovnik, Split, but a large part of Zagreb as well. They have become so powerful that one of the most prominent ones, Tuta Naletilic, recently almost caused a diplomatic scandal: in a Zagreb hotel, his bodyguards clashed with security officers of the American State Secretary, Warren Christopher.

This group does not seem to be too impressed by President Tudjman either. In some of the foreign media, speculations appeared that they are even blackmailing him. This is quite possible - when the Hague Tribunal demanded extradition of suspects from Herzegovina, a message arrived in Zagreb from Mostar that they had just been carrying out orders and that there existed documents about it. The obvious former connections between the Croat and the Herzegovina leadership, in both matters of business and matters of politics, turned them into each other's hostages.

There are, therefore, speculations in Zagreb nowadays that Tudjman is trying to restrain Herzegovina despots and limit their power. He is allegedly even trying to get rid of his, as he used to say, "best minister", Susak. At the same time, assessments can be heard that the extremists, dissatisfied with the Dayton Agreement, are now getting at Tudjman himself. If there is a conflict between them at all, it seems that they have got each other by the throat.

And yet, despite all the bickering, it is more likely that developments in Mostar show that there is still a high level of agreement between Zagreb and Mostar. If one looks a little closer, organized spontaneity of Mostar protests is obvious from a number of details. The local radio which called people to join the rally, immediately started broadcasting patriotic songs, children were let out of school to go to the demonstrations, rabble-rousers blocked premises of the European administration with their cars without the police even trying to stop them. Policemen did not move even during the whole hour the enraged Croats trained shooting at Koschnick.

Zagreb expressed understanding for the protests in Mostar, justified them and offered full logistic, media and political support. Brajkovic in Mostar, Zubak in Sarajevo and at first Sanader and then Tudjman himself in Zagreb all claim the same about the causes of the riots - Koschnik has violated the Dayton Agreement. The official policy tried to cover up what had really happened in Mostar. It is obvious from the way media close to the authorities reported about the Mostar incident. Their formulations are now subject of scorn in the international press. The assault on the European administration, in the interpretation of the Croat Radio, became "hoisting of the Croat coat-of-arms on the building of the EU". Violent demonstrations with shooting and breaking of Koschnick's car and demolishion of property of the European administration was labelled by Croat Television "mass gathering of Croats around the seat of the European administration". Turning Koschnick himself into a live target was reported as follwos: "among the gathered citizens, at one moment, the European administrator found himself blocked, but everything quieted down again soon afterwards, when the citizens dispersed after the intervention of Mijo Brajkovic".

Expressing understanding for the discontent, Zagreb did disassociate itself from the incident in a half-sentence, but fired whole cartridge belts of bullets at those who had condemned riots in Mostar. That is how hue and cry were raised in the media equally against German minister Kinkel who was accused of stimulating anti-Croat hysteria, as well as against Racan's Social Democrats who dared mention that cooperation with Koschnick should be continued because he enjoyed support of the entire international community.

To what extent stances of Mostar and Zagreb coincide is illustrated by the following detail: "We don't want to have anything mixed" - this sentence was uttered by one of Mostar leaders, perhaps most concisely indicating what the actual problem was. The district in Mostar could become a germ of uniting of the entire city. The mayor of the Western bank of the Neretva, Mijo Brajkovic, openly speaks of the necessity of creation of three entities in Bosnia. The riots with patriotic marches and shooting in Mostar were evidently an attempt to interrupt the Dyton denouement and provoke the final division of the city, and eventually of the Federation. Everyone is aware that the solutions are leading to the finals and that things must turn one way or the other. It is becoming more difficult to play double games every day. Against its will, Croatia was forced to send its policemen to Mostar, who will be under European control. It might happen that policemen from Croatia will clash with Herzegovina Croats. That is why it was necessary to hurry with the pandemonium. Policemen from Croatia would not have been able to stand looking on while Koschnick was being shot at. Declaring that they were against any mixing with anybody else, the Herzegovinians are insisting on a clear demarcation line, on ethnic division - of Mostar and the Federation.

Simultaneously with this Mostar stressing of "not mixing" as their political goal, Tudjman's advisor, university professor Dordje Pribicevic, explains in an interview how it is literally "inhumane to force the Croats and the Serbs to live together". The same goes for the Muslims. Explaining the benefits of "humane moving", Pribicevic claims that all ethnic groups which are in the "wrong place" both in Croatia and in Bosnia will be moved. All those who "will not be assimilated, must join their ethnic flock. Nations must be homogeneous, because that is the only thing which makes state creation and democracy possible. The Croats and the Serbs in Bosnia will agree to cooperation, if they are connected with their mother contries and if they do not mix with the Muslims", Mr Pribicevic says. One or two republics of the former Yugoslav community will not survive as independent states.

JELENA LOVRIC