"SPIRITUAL FATHERS" OF REFUGEES

Toying with Banished Persons

AIM Belgrade, 24 May, 1997

President of the Serb Revival Movement (SPO) Vuk Draskovic met on 15 May with representatives of a certain Club of Serb Intellectuals of Krajina - Nikola Trbojevic and Milo Dakic. If Draskovic won the forthcoming presidential elections, these two wanted to know what policy he would pursue concerning Croatia and the Serb refugees from Croatia.

"If I am elected president of Serbia, I will stand at the head of the line of people who have fled and were banished and lead them to Knin, Obrovac, Vojnic, Topusko, Drvar, Grahovo, Mostar, Sarajevo, everywhere where the Serbs had lived for centuries", was the answer. "We will be in favour of permanent reconciliation of the Serbs and the Croats, but only after our people return where they had lived before the Serbs have even settled in Belgrade". As journals report, Draskovic also added that plan Z-4 had never been abolished, and that it would come to force when the Serbs returned, and Serbia accepted this plan.

This is, undoubtedly, just another promise in the election year. This one concerns refugees as the definitely most vulnerable category of population in Serbia and should not be taken literally. Its meaning is that the presidential candidate, contrary to the current head of the state, announces that he will actively be personally engaged in return and respect of the human rights of refugees. After all, this is one of the foundations of the Dayton accords.

However, as Draskovic himself would say, after this declaration, "every Tom, Dick and Harry, and ragtag and bobtail" came down on him. In brief: refugee associations of former Krajina officials financed by the Serbian state cried out in unison that this was "abuse of refugees for political purposes" (Boro Martinovic, Association of the Serbs from Krajina), "political marketing, unrealistic leading people on" (Mihajlo Vucinic, Association of the Serbs from Croatia and RSK), "delusion and wrong approach intended to add to the wrath and discontent of refugees" (Borislav Mikelic, Committee for protection of rights and interests of displaced persons and return to homeland).

Why did this pre-election promise agitate the mentioned "spiritual fathers" of refugees to such an extent? Why the current Serbian authorities and former Krajina leaders are allowed to get involved in return of refugees, and the leader of the greatest opposition party must not? All things considered, the answer can be found in the text by Borislav Mikelic published by Politika ekspres, which having been read in the central daily news program of Radio-Television Serbia, has the significance of the official stand.

Among other, Mikelic accuses Draskovic of political inconstancy, doubledealing with the Serbs outside Serbia - that he crossed the road from extremism to agreement with the stands of Genscher, De Michelis, Western Europe and the Vatican. He warns that return of refugees is not the same as organizing street demonstrations, and that even Draskovic himself is aware that his line of people would be stopped at the border. "If such an approach were accepted and carried out by Alija Izetbegovic", Mikelic establishes, "to start on his way to Republica Srpska with a line of Muslim refugees, and on the other hand if Biljana Plavsic did the same with Serb refugees towards Muslim-Croat Federation with the Serb flag, we already know what would happen and how it would all end".

In other words, if this would actually happen, why was the war fought at all? This is the essence of Mikelic's and other similar reactions. Return of ethnically cleansed people would completely deprive all "accomplishments" of any sense, which the once warring and still current regimes in former Yugoslavia take pride in. Primarily, one of these "accomplishments" this is the war-dismembered Bosnia and ethnic engineering in it and around it. Because, it would be difficult to imagine return of the people from Krajina to their homes, and return of Bosnian Croats who are now living in the homes of the Serbs to return to theirs, the Muslims to theirs, and so on... It is clear even to the last political layman that something like that in the full sense of the word is neither possible, nor realistic. However, an official intention to abandon the mentioned "accomplishments" and an active effort to overcome them, if nothing else, would mean a lot on the road to "the normal world".

This is also the context for the other reason of the attack on Draskovic. Mikelic states that he would not have reacted to his statement if "it had not been at the expense of the banished people and refugees". To be specific: he is afraid that this will create additional safety problems for those who have already returned, and that the others will take the bait of false promises and hope to return. The aim of the statement, he claims, is to include the refugees and others who are in different ways connected to them in Draskovic's election campaign.

As one of the prime ministers of former Krajina, together with its presidents and ministers, Mikelic was what he was solely thanks to Slobodan Milosevic. All of them together brought the region and its population into the situation it is in now. In other words, in a yet unseen manipulation and instrumentalization of that part of the world, they built and preserved power. When they saw fit, they pushed these people into the unnecessary and senseless war for the sake of all the Serbs in a single state. When they realized that this war was lost, they used these people as a tool to at least make something like that possible at least for the Serbs from Bosnia. Finally, when Belgrade and Pale got for themselves as much as they could in Bosnia, Krajina and the people from it disappeared from the scene.

The problem, in fact, lies in the fact that through Mikelic and similar characters, Milosevic does not wish to lose this part of the population. For the sake of definite preservation of the current situation in Bosnia, which is impossible without cooperation with Zagreb, he is trading with their status, possibilities and conditions of return... About humiliations and maltreatment the Serb returnees are faced with in Croatia, it is possible to learn only from reports of non-governmental humanitarian organizations with which Mikelic and those similar to him have nothing in common. How concerned they are about safety of the Serbs who have returned is also testified by the fact that none of the mentioned personages cared to even say something in public about the announced constitution of the parliament of Krajina in exile. Finally, it is not known whether the regime is doing anything to make their position easier by means of an adequate international pressure and arbitration. This would imply complete revision of the entire policy of Belgrade both in Bosnia and in Serbia- but that this should not be expected is also shown by the fact that the regime has decided to play the national card as the trump card again in this election year.

That is why refugees should not be allowed to take their destiny in their own hands. Not even to show inclination towards claimants to power in Serbia due to whose official policy they had experienced everything they had. Their direct influence on the elections is not, nor can it be, great. However, - the indirect and the moral influence - as they are the living and best witnesses of what the current authorities have brought about, might be exceptional. In order to prevent that, Mikelic and the likes of him are still exist. To what extent the regime is concerned about it is confirmed by warnings - coming from the same circles - under threat of deportation, to refugees not to participate in last winter's demonstrations because of unrecognized results of local elections.

Nevertheless, Mikelic is right about one thing. Draskovic's glorification and invocation of Draza Mihajlovic and Chetniks in Ravna Gora certainly will not help refugees to return - both because of Croatia, but also because of the international community. That is why it is perfectly insignificant whether his statement was an irresponsible pre-election promise or real readiness to do his best in order to fulfill what he had promised.

Philip Schwarm (AIM)