CROATS FROM KOSOVO BRINGING LIFE BACK TO KISTANJE

Colonizing Kistanje

AIM Split, 18 December, 1996

As part of a "pilot program" of the Croatian Government on re-settlement of "regions of special state concern" or more precisely "regions abandoned by the Serbs", the town of Kistanje in Dalmatian district of Bukovica has a prominent position. I saw this for myself recently, when I visited Kistanje, where until a year and a half ago almost 100 per cent of the inhabitants were the Serbs, where I came to see "on site" effectuation of plans of the Croatian authorities for colonization of more than 1,000 Janjevans, Croats from Kosovo, who are expected to come to live in this place until mid next year.

It is true than until a few years ago hardly anyone in Croatia was able to find Kistanje on a geographic map (perhaps only on a "special" military one) but it became "well known" in Croatian public after the recent (short-lived) "rule" of Milan Martic and his "Republic of Serb Krajina". In the past war, many in Croatia proclaimed Kistanje "the centre and the brain of Serb rebellion", the place where the idea about the "Serb Krajina" was born, from where the main moves were made during the five-year existence of the "most western Serb state".

But, when "Krajina" disappeared in the operation Storm a year and a half ago, Kistanje remained deserted and empty - several thousand refugees and inhabitants of this place located between Sibenik and Knin, went "somewhere to the east", where for years their eyes and thoughts had been directed. Kistanje is on the front pages of newspapers again (like at the time of "Krajina") - new inhabitants are arriving here in these winter days, people from some distant "eastern Serb lands". I was assured of it at the very entrance to the town, where I met workers of Split enterprise called Alta, who are repairing the electric power network in former "Krajina", in a business deal in which Croatian electric company is expected to invest about two million kunas (about 600 thousand German marks).

They tell me that the first 15 houses have already been connected to the network, that the works are progressing in "according to the planned schedule", so that all the houses which should be reconstructed by Christmans (about 50 housing units), will have electric power. The Government program of "colonizing Janjevans" anticipates that the whole project should be completed by 1 May, 1997, when more than one thousand Kosovo Croats are expected to come to the former "centre of Serb rebellion" and 194 reconstructed family houses.

Among the first reconstructed buildings is the Catholic church at the ecntre of the town, which has already been consecrated and in which the first christening took place a few days ago.

At the same time, as part of the state "pilot program", the town infrastructure is also being reconstructed

• Oil Industries (INA) are reconstructing the gas station, waterworks will also be repaired, although they were just slightly damaged. The school will soon be re-opened, in which until a few weeks ago was the Police Station which was moved to the abandoned Fire Station. There are no telephones in Kistanje yet (before the war, almost every house had a telephone line), but that too will soon be resolved, it is claimed.

Among the economic facilities, it is expected that the enterprise Jadranmetal could soon begin operation, and plans are being made for re-start of engines in the plant of Knin TVIK, since they are not highly damaged and could offer employment to about a hundred people.

But the first impression could deceive - although it is a nice sunny winter day, there are not many people in the streets of Kistanje. In front of the Court House, a long table has been placed. Here, the owner of a coffee shop opened in the same place where a coffee shop used to be before the operation Storm, is expecting his guests, but hardly anyone makes a stop.

We enter the renovated coffee shop, but it is difficult to start a conversation. At the request to talk "for newspapers", the kind waiter suddenly changes his attitude, and the "owner" of the coffee shop bluntly refuses the very idea of photographing the renovated coffee shop (with a large picture of Franjo Tudjman on the wall) by saying: "Drink your beer, it is on the house, but as for saying anything for the newspapers - there will be nothing of the kind".

A few other guests gathered, who are Kosovo Janjevans as one could tell by the way they speak, and they all look with suspicion at the journalist who wants to take pictures and talk: "Some journalists used to come, they wrote all kinds of things, so I don't wish to talk", one of them says. Therefore, I give up the intention to make a reportage about "the first Janjevan coffee shop" in Kistanje, and start on a tour around the town hoping that I will have more luck with other interlocutors.

Hopes remained just hopes - none of the newly arrived inhabitants was in a mood to talk, it was difficult to pull out a single word from passers-by. The impression is that the new inhabitants of Kistanje are still not sure that they are "at home", and they are afraid that a wrong word or move could threaten the "beginning of their new life". It is no secret that many of them are already wondering: what if the Serbs who have fled return? What if the previous owner of the house some day comes to get "his own"? That is the reason why the Croatian Government has prepared an alternative possibility - if the previous owner should appear in due time, the new "owner" gets another house, and if he stays in a house for 10 years it becomes his property.

At the end of the visit to Kistanje I come across a person who is ready "to talk for a newspaper". In front of a house downtown Kistanje, I encounter 90-year old Drago Novakovic, one of the rare Serbs who has remained in Kistanje despite the gust of the "Storm" in August last year.

"What it was like, you want to know. Well, I was sitting in front of the house, saw them coming and that was it. There were a lot of them, hundreds, and I was just sitting in front of my house. We sat down and had a drink", the old man says.

To the question where his "neighbours" are, he answers: "I don't know where they have gone. I didn't want to go anywhere, I am the only who has stayed. The neighbours have all gone. I just got up one morning, and everybody was gone. That was the end of it. Where the devil has taken their fortune, I don't know".

He says that there was not much shooting, and soon after he went to Sibenik where his son found him.

"I spent the night in the house, and the next day the army came and I went to Sibenik. I stayed there for about a month and then they asked me if I had anyone. Where my folks were. I have a son in Split. They wrote that down, and after a day or two - he came. What is it, old man, how are you. I say

• I'm well, and - we came here to Kistanje", Drago says.

To the question whether it is possible to live with the new neighbours, the Janjevans, he says:

"Where would I go. I don't want to go anywhere from my house. Those who have gone - they died on the road, God knows where they were buried. And they didn't want to be here at their homes. It would have been better for them if they had stayed. They who have gone there down at the heels, and died on the way, would still have been alive had they stayed. I am sure. I was born in Croatia and I have lived in Croatia. That is where I am still living", says Drago Novakovic. We end the conversation with the old man who enters his home with unsteady steps at dusk. In Bukovica it still is not safe to leave the house at night.

I leave in the direction of Sibenik - Kistanje remains behind, which is experiencing its "second youth", this time with new inhabitants who will find a new home here, in rocky Bukovica in exchange for their homes which they have left far away - in "Serb Kosovo".

DARKO BARAC