WHAT IS CONCEALED BEHIND TUTA'S ARREST

AIM Zagreb, 10 March, 1997

The order for the arrest of the governor of Herzegovina was issued by Miroslav Tudjman, son of Croatian President, who is also the head of the Croatian Information Service, and in fact the unformal chief of all secret police forces in Croatia. Even if this information from well-informed sources were not true, it is quite certain that Mladen Naletelic Tuta was caught on Tudjman's instructions. Zagreb had ordered a massive roundup in Herzegovina, and allegedly sent men to carry it out. By doing this, among other, Zagreb denied all its previous messages sent to the Hague Tribunal. When the Tribunal had asked Zagreb to extradite Dario Kordic and other Croats wanted in the Hague, it was replied that they were not accessible to the Croatian police, because they were on the territory of another state. Now it is clear that Zagreb can reach anybody in Herzegovina, only if it wishes to do so.

Although Neletilic and his companion Vinko Martinovic Stela were arrested in Croatia, in the region of Split, the so far largest number of people were arrested in Herzegovina. Information say that there were from ten to twenty odd of them. Tuta's arrest was spectacular and members of anti-terrorist units from Zagreb took part in it. Members of special police units in combat uniforms, with black masks on their faces and automatic rifles in their hands were deployed around a Split hotel in which Naletilic used to stay during his visits. Naletilic and Stela were transferred to a prison in Zagreb. Where the other arrested persons are - it has not been made public. It has not been said either why they were arrested. In a curt police statement it is said that Naletilic was arrested because of the crime for which persons are prosecuted in the line of duty, but it was not specified what was the actual crime. Reliable sources claim that he is indicted for kidnapping of a Croatian soldier in Ljubusko four years ago. The man was found dead later on. The police allegedly possesses evidence that Tuta was involved in the kidnapping, but not for anything that followed. Although the act was committed in another state, legal foundation for the procedure in Croatia was found in the fact that the kidnapped soldier was a Croatian citizen.

Of course, this is not the real reason of the arrest. Especially not of so many persons, because most of the arrested had nothing to do with the desrcibed crime. The explanation how come the Croatian police suddenly remembered the kidnapping that took place in 1993 should be sought in the sphere of politics. Politics had so far made the fifty-one year old Naletilic untouchable. He is very closely connected to the Croatian minister of defence Gojko Susak. He was the commander of the merciless punitive brigade. He is believed to be the destroyer of the Old Mostar Bridge. Around Herzegovina, but also in Zegrab, he did whatever he pleased. In Herzegovina he murdered. In Zagreb he beat people up, and recently almost on main street, his men under arms, helped in a forcible takeover of an enterprise.

As a young man he escaped to Germany and joined Croat emigrant circles; ultra-Ustashedom was his ideology, terrorism

• his method. Rumour about him goes that he had collaborated with the state security service of former Yugoslavia, but this is impossible to check. He was the owner of a chain of gambling houses around Western Europe, but also in Croatia. Now he allegedly controls a powerful chain of narcotics dealers. In any case, he is one of the richest men in this space.

He kept away from the public. In the only known interview around here, he spoke about his connections with Arkan; he did not try to conceal that he had a high opinion about him. He severely swooped down on Bosniacs calling them pejoratively "Balias". He claims that the Muslims had stabbed him in the back in the Bosniac-Croat war and that ever since then he has never and nowhere forgiven them for it. He declared himself against the Washington agreement. Like the Croatian President, his ideal is Croatia within borders of the ban's dominion from 1939, in other words, not exactly all the way to the Drina, but not too far from it either. He said: "I gave no chance to Yugoslavia, and I am giving Bosnia & Herzegovina even less". Whether because of such stances or for some other reason, he ruled Herzegovina with the blessing of Zagreb.

At the moment, it is possible to make out three possible reasons for Tudjman's sudden change and purge in Herzegovina. Some, highly cautious German diplomats believe that squaring accounts with Herzegovina criminals should be observed as part of forthcoming elections in Croatia. One could almost say that it is a part of Tudjman's election campaign. In Croatian public there is indeed an enormous animosity for the Herzegovinians and there is no doubt that the Croatian President could regain some of the inclination by repressing them. There is also no doubt that there is a close link between what is called Herzegovina mob around here and the official Zagreb. During the war they were linked by war profiteering, and good business cooperation, probably to the benefit of both sides, continued after the war. The official Croatia extended preferential treatment to its partners from Herzegovina in many ways, often to the detriment of its own citizens. Herzegovinians are the lords from Zagreb to Dubrovnik. Poor people in Zagreb work for the nouveaux riches Herzeg-Croats; poor people in Dalmatia shop in newly opened shopping centres in Herzegovina where the merchandise from Croatia is at least thirty per cent cheaper than where it is produced; impoverished Dubrovnik fine folks watch their tourist gems pass into the hands of rough rural characters from hinterland, whose pockets are stuffed with dirty money. The Croatian authorities, due to giving preference to Herzegovinians, in a way deserve the merit for public odiousness of Herzegovinians, and now they could win applause for clearly disassociating themselves from them.

On the other hand, the surprising arrests could be linked to the situation in Mostar. On the occasion of "bloody Bairam", Zagreb initiated a severe media war against the Bosniacs in that city. Media close to the regime, primarily the Croatian Television, fabricated a story which had nothing to do with what had actually happened. According to it, the Bosniacs were the guilty party, because they had set out to western Mostar in order to cause disturbance at the carnival, they were the ones who had attacked the Croatian policemen who tried to protect the gathered Croatian youth, two Croats were killed and some twenty odd ones were wounded. Mayor of Mostar Ivan Prskalo was quoted, who claimed that it was "an organized terrorist action of Muslim extremists". Shooting the Muslims in the back - which the whole world was talking about - was presented by Croatian media as self-defence. The way in which conflicts in Mostar were reported about reminded of the worst propaganda during the war with the Bosniacs when the frontlines were in all the newspapers and on tv screens.

The shift occurred when the international community stimulated probably, among other, by this attitude of the Croatian media, put its hand down on the table and said that that was enough. Croatia was allegedly threatened with suspension of its membership in the Council of Europe. Zagreb was forced to make some more resolute moves. It could not avoid them any more. Especially because Naletilic, who had stayed in Zagreb for some time, decided to go to Mostar. The Croatian top echelons concluded that he should not go there, because he certainly would not have contributed to pacification of the already strained situation. Political lobbies claim: had he remained in Zagreb, Naletilic probably would not have been arrested. Although Michael Steiner, deputy of high representative of the international community, believes that he is the leader of the mob in western Mostar and that the other arrested "are important persons from the world of crime". Decision-makers from abroad have always insisted on squaring accounts with organized crime, assessing that Herzegovinian mobsters were the greatest threat to peace. Peace and an organized state does not suit dirty business, that is why every attempt made towards them is ruined. That is why nothing can change in Mostar - until the criminals are removed. The fact that main Herzegovinian "godfathers" are now arrested could mean that those who guarded their backs so far have been seriously pressured.

It is also possible that the arrest of the master of Herzegovina and his transfer to Zagreb is in connection with the latest demands from the Hague. The International Tribunal for war crimes has been highly unpleasant towards the Croatian party, it was even explicitly ordered to the Croatian defence minister Gojko Susak to urgently send evidence concerning the case of Blaskic. Allegedly, this has strongly shaken Susak up, because he interpreted it as a clear message that the Hague investigators are sneaking around his own trails. There are certain indications about it. Reliable sources claim that an indictment has already been written in the Hague against the Minister's protege, Mate Boban, and that it is just a matter of time when it will be put in the procedure. Prosecutors from the Hague have recently visited Zagreb, and some media claim that the Croatian leaders concluded that they had to give them something. Maybe Naletilic's arrest is a preparation for a journey to the Hague? Or has the Croatian regime in fact put him away? It is the question of removing witnesses, claims the newly founded weekly Tjednik. Neletilic certainly knows a lot. As a close associate of Susak he could offer meritorious information about connections beteen Zagreb and the Croat Defence Council at the time of the Croat-Bosniac war which the Hague Tribunal is very interested in. Maybe he was arrested in order to prevent his falling into the hands of someone else.

JELENA LOVRIC