TUDJMAN WILL NOT GIVE UP ON HERZEG-BOSNA

AIM Zagreb, 21 March, 1997

Cynics would say that the latest political outing of Croatia's President to Mostar was an expression of the need for love. Only in Herzegovina is it still possible to organize such a welcome for Tudjman in populist mannirisn, with placards, enthusiastic citizens and national songs sung about the big leader in the well-known tradition of "Comrade Tito, white violet". Croatia has outgrown this phase. That is why participation in the celebration on the occasion of re-start of operation of the reconstructed Aluminium Complex in Mostar, and especially the visit to Medjugorje, where several thousand Croats from B&H welcomed him, can be understood as the beginning of Tudjman's election campaign. But the trip with the whole retinue to the neighbouring state was by no means just a sentimental journey.

At the moment when Herzegovina is covered with posters saying "Free Tuta, or there will be war", the Croatian President came in person to say that nothing has changed in the attitude of Zagreb towards Herzegovina. Croatian police has arrested the unformal boss of Herzegovina Mladen Naletilic Tuta annd some of the main "godfathers" of the local mob. But, just as it has locked them up, it can let them go. Independent weekly Feral Tribune writes that it has been informed that Naletilic is already in his house at Siroku Brijeg. It is impossible to verify this information, but it should be kept in mind. In any case, Tudjman said in Mostar that Herzegovina was "one of the pillars of Croatdom", and the Herzegovinians were the pride of the Croats. The ideals in war and in peace. They managed to defend Dalmatia, and in the working victories they they were also "the first". In praising his hosts, the Croatian President got so carried away that he started criticizing the citozens of his own state. "You Herzegovinians are theideal to all the others in Croatia in many aspects", said President of Croatia and by the way rebuked the people from Sibenik for not having managed to preserve their own aluminium factory, unlike the people from Mostar. Such statements will not be welcomed in Croatia. Especially because Tudjman's socializing with the people in Croatia is quite different. On the occasion of his visits to Istria and Varazdin, Croatia's President used to publicly rebuke his hosts, and at the pre-election rally in Zagreb a year and a half ago, cheers to Dinamo from the audience enraged him so much that he could not control himself, and after that the police established order with its truncheons among the persistent fans of this football team whose name Tudjman had changed to Croatia.

Tudjman's visit to Mostar was a manifestation of "all-Croat unity". It is true that insignia of the B&H Federation were also hanging at the celebration, but the national anthem of Croatia was sung, Tudjman did mention the Federation, but firmly connected with Croatia. He especially stressed the meaning of reconstructed factory for linking "Herzegovina to Dalmatia, that is the Federation to Croatia". On the level of rhetoric, one could even say that everything was quite fair, but the words were just a mask for certain, quite different messages. The whole performance implies that Herzegovina is still considered to be a part of Croatia. Tudjman behaved as if he were in his own state, and Herzegovina leadership, gleaming with happiness, called him "the president of all Croats". It was a demonstration of how the Croatian President never gives up anything he believes to be de facto his own.

Tudjman did not allow to be disturbed by the incident caused by Mijo Brajkovic, former mayor of western Mostar and now manager of the aluminium factory. Claiming that the European Union did not wish to invest into this factory, in his speech Brajkovic especially blamed the former administrator of Mostar, Hans Koschnik, about whom he said that he had experienced the destiny he deserved. Martin Garrod, Bildt's representative in Mostar, understood this as an allusion to stoning of Koschnik, so he walked out in protest. Bildt's deputy, Michael Steiner addressed a letter of protest to President Tudjman in which he expressed support to Garrod's gesture and claimed that Brajkovic had insulted the European Union and publicly pardoned "the attack of the mob on Koschnik which was condemned by the entire international community".

Brajkovic was, allegedly, implicated in the attempt of lynch of the European administrator of Mostar. In any case, at the time Bonn demanded from Zagreb to replace him. It did not happen, and Brajkovic has continued his war against the international community, and especially Koschnik. Recently, in an interview he declared that Mostar was in fact ruined by Koschnik and Garrod. Allegedly Koschnik had not understood the actual situation in Mostar. His mistake was that he had "come with the idea on multiethnicity", which, as Brajkovic said, "for us who had lived through all the horrors of Mostar, was really just a platitude". He did not dwell only upon the assessments of the work of European officials, but gave his opinion about them as persons. Both were "third-class politicians", Koschnik was "a European trade union activist, he has never done anything particular in his life, he dealt only with tall tales". Brajkovic also said in the conclusion that he had personally often taught Koschnik that he had to be a democrat, but as he said, the latter "did not understand". Such declarations, in an interview and on the occasion of opening of the aluminium factory, show that Brajkovic is nowadays a very powerful man in Herzegovina. And Tudjman's participation in his celebration and a pile of compliments he uttered about him on the occasion - after the other man had insolently thrown the glove in the face of the international community again - also speak a lot for themselves.

There is plenty of reason to link Tudjman's parading around Herzegovina with the decision of the assembly in Pale to adopt the agreement on special relations between Republica Srpska with Yugoslavia. On the same day when the Croatian President demonstrated connection of Herzegovina with Croatia, the Bosnian Serbs tried to make union of "Serb lands" official and formal. It is believed that these two events were not only simultaneous, but also of the same kind. The main creator of the Dayton accords, Richard Holbrooke, not long ago said that Tudjman, contrary to weakened Milosevic, was not giving up on his plan to annex a part of Bosnia and that this was at the moment the main threat to the Dayton project. Herzegovina is indeed practically already incorporated into Croatia by the border softened so much that it practically does not exist, but also by the same currency, telecommunications. The Croatian President did his best to prove that allegations that he had not given up on his aspirations to Bosnia & Herzegovina

• were quite true.

JELENA LOVRIC