SUSAK'S BITTER COFFEE

AIM, OSIJEK, December 1, 1996

Last Tuesday the Croatian Defence Minister Gojko Susak finally had his long announced coffee in Vukovar. There is no doubt that Susak did not enjoy that Vukovar coffee because he had to drink it contrary to his wishes - in the company of General Jacques Klein, Provisional Administrator for UNTAES areas, instead with some Croatian general whose units were the first to enter Vukovar. Susak found himself in Vukovar only some ten days after the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution No.1079 on the extension of the mandate of the peace forces for another six months till July 15, 1997. It seems that his arrival was truly in the function of what was barely mentioned by the state media: during the extended mandate Generals Klein and Schoups (Commander of the UNTAES forces) will enjoy the full support of the Croatian Government which will be "much greater than was the case till now" as Minister Susak emphasized.

Although the latest Security Council Resolution only confirmed what Klein announced long ago - that the mandate will be extended for another six months and that nothing will come out of the Croatian Assembly Resolution by which the retired American General already had his return ticket booked for January 15 - the Croatian state media did not make such fuss over this fact as they used to in similar situations. It is within such "tame" behaviour of the controlled media commentators that one should observe the fact that another certain date, until recently announced by the officials of the Croatian political top, has once again been tacitly discarded. At the last session of the Assembly, Vladimir Seks, Vice-President of the Croatian Parliament linked the holding of the elections in the Croatian Podunavlje (the Danube River Valley), which for months are being announced for December 15, with "possible simultaneous elections for all local government bodies, presidential elections as well as those for the District Chamber".

Susak's visit to Vukovar was accompanied by exceptionally moderate statements and symbolic announcements which could speed up the process of peaceful reintegration. Explaining that it was in the interest of Croatia for the reintegration to be concluded in a peaceful manner, Susak announced greater cooperativeness on the part of Croatia, especially, as he has put it, of the Croatian local authorities, "from the level of district-prefects up" promising on their behalf "a higher level of cooperation". Namely, in his recent interview to the Zagreb "Vecernji List" (Evening Paper), Jacques Klein complained that "local extreme politicians on both sides" were putting spokes into wheels of the vehicle with which he was pulling Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Srem towards Croatia. Although Klein named no names, it is more than clear that he primarily had in mind Branimir Glavas, Prefect of the Osijek-Baranja District, who antagonized him with his recent arbitrary closing of "the open market" which the Provisional Administrator has established on the Osijek-Vukovar road so that the inhabitants of the UNTAES areas could meet with their relatives, friends and acquaintances from those parts of Croatia still inaccessible to them.

In a number of independent Croatian media speculations were published that Mate Granic, Foreign Affairs Minister had asked President Franjo Tudjman to remove the Prefect Glavas from office for his alleged hindering of the process of peaceful reintegration. Admittedly, Granic denied having asked something like that. However, after the Zagreb meeting between President Tudjman the delegation of the local Serbs from the UNTAES area, headed by Vojislav Stanimirovic president of the local government, the Belgrade "Politika" used the same story, attributing the autorship of Granic's alleged request for Glavas' replacement, to General Klein. Now, Gojko Susak indirectly confirmed all that smoke, with some fire, by announcing that everyone will cooperate more with Klein - "from the prefect up".

Only a week before Susak made this promise to Klein, at the session of the HDZ District Board for Osijek, expressing his indignation at the extension of UNTAES mandate, Glavas pointed out that it was a "noose around Croatia's neck". In the presence of the HDZ Secretary General Ivan Valent he said that "on July 15 next year we should not be surprised by another extension of the mandate in combination with years of monitoring by the international community, nor if the Serbs get political autonomy or the 21st District". "People should be told all this clearly, in which case I will go to live in free parts of the Croatian state", said Glavas on that occasion firing a verbal burst at the Croatian top. Glavas took advantage of this opportunity to send a clear message to Zagreb that those who have signed the Erdut Agreement will have to give "an account for this to the Croatian people".

It is clear that he was referring to Hrvoje Sarinic, but it is equally clear that the old/new Chief of the President's Cabinet - a man of special Tudjman's confidence

• did not sign the Erdut Agreement on his own, but before taking the pen asked his approval. It is interesting that for the first time Susak and Granic, two strong Tudjman's ministers, otherwise encamped on opposite poles of the ruling party, spoke in almost identical terms about the reintegration of the Croatian Podunavlje. While Susak in Vukovar admitted that the lack of Croatian cooperation with UNTAES would mean the continuation of that process ("In that case someone else will tell us when to conclude it"), in the Croatian Assembly Granic warned that extending support to Klein "would significantly contribute to the acceleration of the reintegration process". Both Susak and Granic - which is not without importance - have said this almost at the same hour, but one day apart.

However, it is particularly symbolic that both went public with such statements immediately after Tudjman-Klein meeting which the two retired generals had upon the return of the Croatian President from his medical treatment in the Military Hospital "Walter Reed".

There is no doubt that the top echelons of the Croatian state policy are aware that they will have to be more cooperative if they want the reintegration to be concluded by July 15. It seems that Klein has no more problems with pacifying Serbs in the UNTAES area and that by pushing Goran Hadzic to the margins - who is admittedly still nominal "President of the Area", although no one quite knows what that means - and by pushing Stanimirovic to the fore, he has played the ball into the Croatian court. After the meeting of Stanimirovic's team with President Tudjman, the state media pointed out that the Serbs have addressed him as "our President", which no doubt pleased Tudjman. He probably became aware of the price of that address subsequently, when he realized that he will have to behave differently if the Serbs declare themselves as the Croatian nationals. In democratic states one talks with one's own nationals and cannot use repressive action of either the police or the army against them.

The unexpectedly demonstrated cooperativeness of the Croatian side towards UNTAES, and this time equally from both poles of the ruling party (with the exception of "local extreme politicians" as Klein likes to call them) - lies in the fact that Zagreb was informed that it could facilitate the conclusion of the process of peaceful reintegration in the timeframe suitable to Croatia only by genuinely cooperating with Klein. And since all this is linked with the issue of the Croatian elections next year, it is clear why the group around Tudjman so generously offers such cooperativeness.

In addition, Tudjman is deeply aware of what Glavas calls "nook around the neck of the Croatian state". Namely, in the latest Security Council resolution No.1079 that nook is clearly visible. It states that the Security Council "as soon as possible after successful elections, but not after July 1, 1997 will recommend continued presence" of the UN forces "probably in the form of restructured UNTAES". It seems that Zagreb has finally realized that only genuine cooperation with Klein can help the "restructuring of UNTAES" be more than mere cosmetics.

DRAGO HEDL