MR. MIKELIC LEADING THE WAY

New Project for the Return of Refugees from Croatia

AIM, Banjaluka, March 7, 1996

With his speech at the session of the Steering Committee for foundation of the so-called committee for resolving the status and return of the banished and refugee Serb population from Croatia and Krajina (as initially one in a series of groups of citizens was called who are ready to join the organization of return of refugees from Krajina to their homes), Professor Milan Mrkela, Serb refugee from Benkovac, spoiled the wished for impression of serious and noble intentions of the convener of the gathering held in the end of January in Belgrade.

Namely, Professor Mrkela denied the right to the authors of this, as announced, new project of return, the former Krajina Prime Minister Borislav Mikelic and his associates, to represent "any Serb in any activity", considering their, as Milan Mrkela believes, long lost moral and any other credit, if they ever had any.

Mr. Mikelic's intention passed quite unnoticed by the Serb public, it was registered only by the Radio-Television Serbia and Belgrade Helsinki Committee for Human Rights. The state medium, introducing Borislav Mikelic as "an experienced politician and entrepreneur", announced a specific support to his new task, while the Helsinki Committee expressed its reservations, anticipating in this operation just personal interest of its initiators.

• Is it possible to trust people who have for four years "negotiated" with Croatia and the international community on the status and rights of this nation and pushed it into its present position - Ninko Miric wonders, a banished man from Vojnic and member of the Committee for Return of Croat Serbs established by the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia. - What does advocating return into Croatia and Krajina mean - Miric continues - as if it is a case of two territories, and what does it mean to represent only banished Serbs, when there are also the Croats and the Muslims among the refugees...

Whether due to such an assessment at the start of the operation, or due to something else, Mr. Mikelic prepared much better and more accurately for making his committee "official", that is, for the very act of its constitution. That is why in the end of February, he rented the hall of the Belgrade Students' Culture Centre, secured its doors with experienced guards, checked entrance of journalists and finally formed an agency which changed its name, from its initiation to foundation, into the Committee for Protection of Rights and Interests of Displaced Persons and Return to Homeland. As evident, the Serbs and Croatia and Krajina were all deleted from the name and relinquished their place to displaced persons and homeland.

In his guest performance in the central daily news program on RTS, that very evening, Borislav Mikelic felt the need to repeat for the sake of all those who still had any doubts that he enjoyed the support and promised cooperation of republican and federal agencies of Serbia and Yugoslavia, as well as that his committee would not take over the role and job of the Commissariat for Refugees, the Red Cross, or any other humanitarian organization which was concerned with refugees.

In a statement about the activities of the Committee issued a day after its foundation and signed by Prof. Dr. Rade Tanjga, retired (?) colonel of the Army of Yugoslavia and one of the former ministers of defence of the Republic of Serb Krajina (RSK) and former head of the "University of RSK" in Knin, said that this agency would primarily be engaged in "diplomatic and political activities", and only after that in social and humanitarian relations, property and legal problems, financial and other issues, employment, health protection, education and cultural problems, and other issues which make "high-quality solutions of lasting providing for displaced persons" possible.

Among others, Borislav Mikelic chose the following people to be members of his team: Dragan Cicic, owner of Petrinja "Drvoplast" enterprise dislocated to Kraljevo and Hrtkovci; Milivoj Kricka, minister of electric-power industry in the former government of RSK; Svetozar Vincic, head of customs administration in Dvor on the Una; Milivoj Vojnovic, the last Krajina foreign minister and president of social democrats from Glina; former presidents of Kostajnica, Korenica and Vojnic municipalities (Branko Dmitrovic, Milan Kalember, Slobodan Blagojevic); Toso Palic, Babic's minister of the interior; the already mentioned Rade Tanjga and his wife Milena, former minister of information in Krajina; Dr. Radojka Petrovic from Krnjak and others.

Although held behind closed doors, news also leaked from Mikelic's founding gathering that members of this committee would soon enter premises of the Krajina Bureau, an agency of the former government of RSK which still operates in Belgrade. Foundation of a holding company was also announced, although not its activity, fixed assets of which would be property of former Krajina enterprises moved to Serbia last summer.

Milan Trbulin, former commissar for refugees of the RSK who is playing the role of the head of Belgrade Krajina Bureau since recently, the office given to him by the still active Dr. Milan Babic, last prime minister of the RSK, comments on Mr. Mikelic's intentions:

• Noone contacted us about it so far, nor were any of us invited to the founding meeting of the Committee. I know nothing about "taking over" of the Bureau, we are still working, issuing various certificates to our banished citizens, papers which replace their lost identification and other documents, we assist in providing for them and do other jobs in agreement with representatives of the local authorities...

Contrary to Mr. Trbulin, Rajko Lezajic, the last in a series of chairman of the Krajina assembly, was invited to the founding meeeting of the Committee by Mr. Mikulic. Mr. Lezajic, whose job comes down to daily writing and sending letters to "Russian friends" and the Security Council, welcomes Mr. Mikulic's operation. "Because, we the Serbs from Krajina need to unite our mental and physical capabilities in order to pull ourselves out of this quicksand we have fallen into". There is room for everybody regardless what they were and what they did so far - he believes.

Dr. Milan Babic who claims that he had not met Borislav Mikelic since the exodus of the Serbs from Krajina and that he therefore knew nothing about the intentions of the Committee but what he was told by the third parties, says as follows:

• I am not in favour of individual solutions of the problem of return, because it would mean "Croatization" of the Serb returnees, which would jeopardize collective rights of the refugees and blur the problem of the Serb people in exile. I am in favour of collective return, collective security and collective rights of the Serbs which implies resolution of their political status. Because the Serbs from Krajina - Dr. Babic continues - have the political right to the territory of Krajina. If the Committee of Borislav Mikelic approaches the problem of resolving the return of Serb refugees in this way, there will be no conflicts between us - Dr. Babic says, adding that the Government of Krajina operates in exile and that a special commission was established within it to deal with the issues of the status and rights of the refugees, cooperation with various organizations and institutions, "so why not Mikelic, too".

Reactions of the banished Serbs (according to what Mikelic' Committee claims, the program was supported by about 40 thousand people from Krajina with their signatures) range from bitterness, through reservations and indifference to accepting the operation for what its worth. The Committee does not inspire confidence because of a series of scandals and criminal actions attributed to its members during their operation in Krajina. On the other hand, Mikelic's persistent referring to Slobodan Milosevic's support, but to certain Zagreb connections as well ("I and Sarinic"...) forces Serb refugees to the conclusion that they will have no choice again. That is, if it happens to be true that Borislav Mikelic was entrusted with the task to lead the way at the head of a line of people, that line of people will certainly reach Croatia, however long it may be...

(AIM) Milka Ljubicic