GLAVAS AND HIS JACKPOT

AIM Zagreb, 18 April, 1997

Journalists who are not in the habit of reading every morning the Osijek daily Glas Slavonije which is believed by many to be a personal bulletin of District Prefect Branimir Glavas, understood the invitation to the press conference of Dr Zlatko Kramaric as the wish of the Osijek mayor to brag with the election results which ensured another four-year mandate in Osijek for the Liberals. But, the immediate cause of Kramaric's press conference was quite different: he warned the journalists that he had demanded protection from Croatia's President Tudjman, and that he intended to do the same in his address to the Assembly, but also to the international institutions. Kramaric did not conceal that he was scared for his life and that the declaration of Branimir Glavas published that morning in Glas Slavonije was an open invitation to lynch.

Finding it difficult to accept the fact that he was defeated in Osijek, where his candidate for mayor, anonimous young Zeljko Mandic, was beaten hollow, Glavas was seriously worried that - due to possible surprises in Baranja - he could easily lose in the district as well. After all, that is exactly what Kramaric had sent word to him about via media when he said that it would be ideal if the new Osijek prefect, instead of Glavas, would be Zlatko Benasic (the current assistant mayor and Kramaric's party colleague). Glavas, whose will for power has already acquired pathological proportions, could not stand even the hypothetical Kramaric's sentence, and the evry next day in Glas Slavonije openly called "healthy forces" to deal with Kramaric.

The formal cause of the yet unseen attack on Kramaric was the wish of Osijek mayor to meet one of the leaders of the local Serbs, Vaso Zigic on 15 April in a Baranja restaurant called Citadela. Kramaric had sent a fax to Ivica Vrkic, head of the interim administration office asking him - as customary on the occasion of each visit to the UNTAES territory - to ensure transitional police escort. The fax sent by Kramaric to Vrkic in a miraculous way found its way to the editorial office of Glas Slavonije which by publishing the fascimile of the fax, offered Glavas the opportunity to comment on the intention of Osijek mayor to meet Vaso Zigic.

The enraged Glavas immediately realized that this meeting (which by the way never took place) was Kramaric's intention to create a coalition with the Independent Democratic Serb Party whose votes could prevail in the struggle for power in the district. "This pawn of international diplomatic circles does not intend to go into coalition with the Croat Democratic Community which has won twice as many votes as his anarchists (without the votes of the banished persons) and eight out of the total of eleven electoral districts. In his self-confidence this adventurer is ready to offer a coalition to Stanimirovic's and Zigic's Independent Democratic Serb Party (SDSS) just in order to make his long dreamt dream come true to throw the HDZ on its knees, even if that was with the help of the Serbs. After all, hasn't he recently in Vukovar, in the presence of Stanimirovic, lightly made a statement that their programs were close and in a considerable part identical", hissed Glavas in Glas Slavonije.

"Kramaric's activities have not remained unobserved by the administration which is concerned with protection of state and national interests", continued Glavas. "What big coalition is Kramaric talking about when he knows that the HDZ will not need 'a big coalition' in order to enable us to have Croat authorities in our district. Had he been benevolent to his homeland, he would have announced support to the majority HDZ if need be, and he would not have asked for reception by Vaso Zigic, at the moment when alcoholic vapour had not yet evaporated from his breath early in the morning on 14 April. I am sure that he is not doing it according to instructions of President Tudjman, but because he is a foreign servant and an evil man. If that evil would not have been dangerous for Croatia and all of us, it would not have concerned me", stated Glavas for Glas Slavonije.

The part which flustered Kramaric the most refers to the following Glavas's words: "My thoughts and publicly expressed messages of warning are addressed to all normal citizens to be aware that we are entering fatal and historic months, and that if the 'blind' do not see, and if these words fail to reach the 'deaf', we are threatened by objective danger that the price of our foolishness will be paid by our children and our chindren's children. It is high time that we simply realize: he (Kramaric) is an adventurer and a dangerous man. Citizens are means of manipulation for him, and he himself, in his corruptness, an instrument for promotion of non-Croat interests. Wake up, Croatians, because it is not the destiny of some African tribe that is being resolved here, but that of eastern Slavonia and all of us", exclaimed Glavas, calling "Croatians" and "normal citizens" to jihad.

The hysterical outburst of Osijek-Baranja district prefect might not have caused such a reaction from Kramaric had it not been a continuation of an exceptionally dangerous climate created in Osijek and Slavonia at the time of the election campaign. Never before these elections had it happened that candidates of opposing political parties were physically assaulted (the case of Vladimir Bebic who was knocked out in Osijek before he had managed to hold a gathering), nor had guns been pointed at members of opposing parties while they were putting up posters (the case of candidate of the Croat Social Liberal Party, Ernest Nappholz), nor had ever before thirty odd bullies with baseball bats been stopped with great difficulty by a police cordon and prevented to break the pre-election gathering of HSLS at the central Osijek square.

In the city where there are many frustrated banished persons and people with post-war trauma it is not at all harmless when the prefect denounces the mayor as a person who is "a pawn of international diplomatic circles whose activities have not remained unnoticed by the administration which is concerned about protection of state and national interests", and who, by offering "coalition to Stanimirovic's and Zigic's Independent Democratic Serb Party" is "an instrument for promotion of non-Croat interests". Such a man indeed can become a movable target, just as Kramaric has warned.

The most ridiculous thing in this slightly tragic story is the fact that district prefect Branimir Glavas himself was the one who offered Vaso Zigic a coalition long before the elections. In a television program towards the end of January, he pubblicly offered Vaso Zigic the post of vice-prefect in Osijek-Baranja district. Zigic categorically refused this offer, which was published on 25 January by Glas Slavonije mocking Zigic's intolerance.

The uncertainty in which Glavas found himself and in which his post of the district prefect is not at all safe, is probably the immediate cause of his cruel showdown with Kramaric. But more than anything else Glavas was infuriated by the letter in which Kramaric offered Dr Tudjman a large coalition of the HSLS and the HDZ on the level of Osijek Baranja (Glavas's) district. Kramaric is doing it under one condition: that persons who spread hatred and intimidate people do not participate in the authorities. There is no doubt that by this formulation in the letter sent to Tudjman Kramaric meant Glavas himself, which indeed the Osijek Mayor admitted to the journalists.

Kramaric's idea about a big coalition of the HDZ and the HSLS is in fact a very cunning move which is seriously shaking the position of prefect Branimir Glavas. At the moment this text is being written, it seems to be quite certain that the HDZ will not be able to constitute the district authorities by itself, and therefrom, neither to nominate the prefect on its own. If Tudjman fails to agree to the large coalition, the HSLS has another possibility: in a situation when the HDZ cannot elect the district prefect on its own, it is sufficient for the HSLS to propose its candidate and in a secret ballot most probably have him elected. Expressed unpopularity of Glavas among the Serbs would almost certainly deprive him of all their votes. In such a situation, the post of the district prefect could sooner be taken by any candidate of the HSLS than the mandate of the still current prefect Glavas could be renewed.

Tudjman will perhaps even unwillingly be forced to accept Kramaric's proposal about the large coalition, because it is known that the transitional administrator Jacques Klein has several times indicated Glavas as the main obstacle to peaceful reintegration. If Klein continues to insist on removing such obstacles, and there is no doubt that he will persist on it for the sake of success of the job he has invested a lot of effort and international money in, Tudjman could quite readily accept Kramaric's proposal. In this way the Croatian option could win in Podunavlje, and Glavas would be sacrificed. In view of the fact that he has lost the elections in Osijek and that he himself has brought about the situation in which he cannot decide even about his own destiny on the level of the district, it will probably not be at all difficult for Tudjman to thank Glavas for cooperation which has lasted for many years.

When things are observed through the prism of political relations, it becomes quite clear what is the reason for the outburst of rage in Glavas's public appearance. But it is equally clear what is the origin of Kramaric's fear for his safety. Heads have fallen in Osijek even for much smaller roles. In relation to them, this is a true jackpot.

DRAGO HEDL