GREATER CROATS CUTTING CROATIA DOWN TO SIZE

AIM, ZAGREB, May 18, 1997

An attempt of a dozen Serbs who after the "Storm" in August 1995 found shelter in the Danube river valley, and some of whom spent the whole war period in Zagreb, to return to these parts nearly ended fatally. Local Croats, mostly exiles from the Bosnian parts of the Sava river valley, some 100 - 200 of them, attacked the Serbian returnees seriously injuring some of them, burning down their property and damaging the houses. It is hard to say what has exactly happened from Tuesday till today, but judging by what has been said at the spontaneous gathering of Croats in Hrvatska Kostajnica, it is more than clear that Croats who still live in this county do not want the Serbs to return. On the other hand, the Serbian Democratic Forum openly stated that that was no spontaneous rally, but according to the president and the secretary of this organization, Veljko Dzakula and Petar Ladjevic, a gathering which was well coordinated by "some unknown centers of power". The leaders of this Serbian organization further claimed that it was not in the interest of some for the Serbs to return so that their human rights were being violated as the least protected and helpless, illustrating this by numerous examples of attacks on Serbs in other parts of Croatia.

On the other hand, the Croatian Prime Minister Zlatko Matesa tried to play down this latest incident saying "according to his information the Serbian returnees came in contravention of the signed agreement, and had the agreement been observed this would not have happened". The UNHCR representatives denied that they had organized the return of the Serbs, but at the same time put it to the Croatian authorities: if these are people who used to live in the region under the UNTAES administration, isn't it to be expected that they should have Croatian documents and therefore be free to travel all over their own state.

The worst thing for Croatia is that this whole series of incidents happened at the time of the visit of a state delegation headed by Dr.Mate Granic, Foreign Minister, to Washington, which was invoked as yet another argument to prove the Croatian insincerity and uncooperativeness. Through the state media Mate Granic informed the public of the great success of the Croatian diplomacy and the high level of agreement reached with the American administration on most of the issues discussed. However, a denial soon ensued, first thanks to some independent media, so that it soon came out that Madleine Albright had not had so trying a meeting with a foreign minister as the one with Granic was, for quite some time. Her basic message was that she held Granic in high esteem, that the USA wanted good relations with Croatia, that the States wanted Croatia to be a part of the West and Europe, but at the same time, she made it crystal clear that the Croatian side had to improve its activities in the implementation of the Dayton Agreement, had to cooperate with the Tribunal in the Hague and enable the peaceful return of the Serbian refugees.

However, thanks to its largest media, especially TV, the Croatian Government disregarded all this electing to portray only the successful part of the visit of its delegation. Once again Croatia pulled the carpet from under its own feet forgetting that the truth will out and that carrier pigeons are a matter of the past, and that powerful as it may be, Croatian Television is not the only one and that Croatia is a small country which cannot afford to lie about what its "greatest ally" truly thinks about her.

Thus, thanks primarily to information which he received from the country but also his own attempts based on that information to explain to the unwitting Americans what had really happened, Granic got himself into a fix. That is why, after his return to Zagreb he was forced to state for the prime time News that the uninformed lady had clearly said that the big brother was dissatisfied with numerous incidents involving Serbs and the policy of return in general, that she demanded better cooperation with the Hague Tribunal and the extradition of also those over whom Croatia allegedly had no jurisdiction as they live in another state, as well as that she demanded greater cooperativeness in the implementation of the Dayton Agreement, especially regarding Mostar.

In other words, this means that Croatia must keep its promises, i.e. enable the return of all, and not only of Croats, including to Banija, and that all those whom the Hague Tribunal is after will have to go there since it is ridiculous to allow the citizens of that neighbouring state to vote for the President of the Croatian state but at the same time claim that Croatia has no jurisdiction over them. Finally, the question of the games with Herzeg-Bosnia as some sort of a national - cultural community, which has arisen like a specter but under a new disguise, was reopened. Further, Croatia will have to change its legislation, as it has already done partially, and guarantee to all its citizens, and not only Croats, life in safety, as well as the right to a home and property. The Americans who are not alone in this, are not at all impressed by the extremely boring stories on victims and aggressors, because even many Croats are asking: if Serbia is the aggressor why has not Croatia ever demanded war reparations, as Bosnia and Herzegovina has?

A pragmatic policy is never made of morals and honesty or, justice, for that matter. Croatia has to understand that, just as it has to understand the angry people of Posavina who have been driven away from their homes and who are constantly being sold pipe dreams, offered false hopes or toyed with. The several dozen Serbs who wanted to return, as they could not take it any longer, no more than the exiled Croats could, since both are victims of great but dangerous dreams of small leaders in big uniforms, mistakenly believed that it was all over. The incidents in Banija, and not only those, point to all the complexity of the Serbian problem in Croatia and the consequences of Tudjman's claim that that problem no longer exists for Croatia.

Unfortunately, Tudjman is right for the most part as the Serbs will never again make 12 percent of the Croatian population, nor even eight so as to get special status, but that still does not mean that their rights may be violated whenever the idea crosses someone's mind. At the same time, the latest events show all the naivety of the American policy that time would cure all things and everything would be as it used to, brotherhood and unity all over again. But if we disregard that degree of guilelessness, there still remains the American insistence on civil and national rights not only for the benefit of the Serbs, but, so to say, to their detriment. For, what arguments will the Americans use to discipline the Serbia of today, if not primarily the Albanian, Sanjak, and even Vojvodina issue. These are obviously segments of a unified policy for the region, but if the Americans prefer Croatia in any respect that is mostly because they plan to tie it to the NATO, and FR Yugoslavia would soon follow. Isn't that the model of maintaining peace between Greece and Turkey?

Whoever was behind the events in the Kostajnica region probably did not even dream that in the name of the greater Croatia he had thereby actually helped cut Croatia down to size. It is true that the plan of a major resettlement of people was largely carried out during this war, at times to other territories, but too often also to greener pastures, whether tended by God or Allah, but it is also true that many parts are scorched earth. According to some data, today only a handful of wretched people live in the "liberated towns" of Drvar and Glamoc, while the heart of Croatia from Zadar to Zagreb is deserted.

The way Knin, Obrovac, Korenica and other towns in which Croats from Kosovo, Vojvodina or B&H were supposed to settle, look today is heart-rending. This is Croatia's major current problem, although it is not publicly admitted, but it seems that for some it is more important that there are no more Serbs there, than the fact that that part is nothing but a black hole. In any case, it was so planned, as few are those who believe in the spontaneous combustion of the houses and willing departure without a single shot being fired. It is better that way, instead of having another twenty thousand people lose their lives. But even if there was some logic in Croatia sending "Slobo's Serbs" across the border so that they would realize how they had been sold down the river, there no longer exist any reasons, except for irrational, albeit often quite understandable ones, to prevent the Serbs from returning. That is probably what Mrs.Albright wanted to explain to Granic: leave Milosevic to us.

GOJKO MARINKOVIÅ