A COMEBACK OF THE BROTHERHOOD AND UNITY

AIM ZAGREB, 26 May, 1997

• God willing, may you take an oath in the grave! This sentence uttered in a subdued voice by a member of the Transitional Police Forces (TPF) while delegates of the new District Assembly of the Vukovar-Srem District were taking an oath seemed the only visible trace of hatred and distrust which has accumulated between the Croats and the Serbs in the Danube river valley during the last seven years. Everything else went on in a harmony that escapes any description and could only be compared to the one-time communist congresses held at their golden times, when everything was done according to a previously determined script, without any surprises.

Only those uninformed may have thought this constituting session of the Vukovar-Srem District, held last Saturday, the most critical point of the process of peaceful reintegration of Eastern Slavonia and Baranja within the constitutional order of the remainder of Croatia. Practically it represented the moment of the transfer of authority and formal abolition of the former "territorial bodies of the local Serbs" (one of the formulations used by the Croatian media in devising ways of saying six of one and half a dozen of the other), although that authority had been well curtailed a week earlier - with the constitution of the Osijek-Baranja District. It was precisely a detail from that session - when curious thing happened which usually happens at stadiums when an uniformed player scores a goal by mistake driving to despair those who have agreed on the final result of the game in advance - that served as an additional element of caution to which the screen-writers of the district session in Borovo had to pay attention.

Namely, when during the election of Branimir Glavas for the District Prefect of the Osijek-Baranja District in Osijek, a lady delegate of Serbian nationality raised her hand in favour of the opposition proposal for a liberal, Vilim Herman, as an opposing candidate to Glavas, the whole HDZ-SDSS agreement on mutual respect and nonaggression was about to explode. The opposition needed only one vote more for its proposal to be taken into procedure (HSLS and HSS have 14 delegates in the Osijek-Baranja District and they needed 15 votes for Herman's nomination) and the fact that it came from the Serbian side came as a rather unexpected surprise.

That one Serbian vote made things very complicated indeed: voting for Glavas as the only candidate for District Prefect was to be open, but when Herman joined the game everything fundamentally changed. Namely, the Rules of Procedure specify that in case of two candidates for the position of district prefect, the vote has to be secret, which called Glavas' certain victory into question. This caused general dismay as the HDZ members thought that the Serbs have again cheated them, and rumour has it that Vaso Zigic, a sacrosanct leader of the Baranja Serbs, openly swore to Ivica Vrkic, Government commissioner for peaceful reintegration, that SDSS had nothing to do with that because the Serb lady who voted for Herman, was not even a member of his party. Allegedly, Zigic promised Vrkic that all SDSS members would vote for Glavas and even proposed that they fill in their ballots in front of him. In the end everything turned out well and the informal coalition HDZ - SDSS shone in full plumage. To the opposition's disappointment - Glavas got all the Serbian votes.

However, there were no such surprises in Borovo. This could be explained by the fact that among the delegates there were none of those from Mercep's independent list, nor Tomislav Mercep himself, who - as it was rumoured - was told to "ask to be excused". Namely, no one wanted a re-run of eggs and stones with which the Vukovar HDZ was welcomed a month ago in the hotel "Dunav" where it held its pre-election gathering. Perhaps that is why the Croatian flag and coat of arms were discreetly placed in a corner of the stage, while Tudjman's picture on the wall was slightly larger than that used for identity cards. With visible nervousness Davorin Mlakar, Minister of Administration in the Croatian Government, invited the delegates and guests to pay their respects to the homeland to the music of the Croatian national anthem. Everyone got up, including Serbian journalists, and no one walked out in protest, although there were some who held their hands on their backs as they did not share in the enthusiasm of those holding their palms to their heart.

Vladimir Seks, Vice-President of the Croatian Parliament, was cordially congratulated by Mirko Jagitic (SDSS) on his election for Assistant District Prefect and during the break, with an unusual patience and respect, he even talked to the correspondent of the Belgrade "Politika". Ivica Vrkic interceded with the Chairman Toma Calic, doyen among the delegates who chaired the session until the election of Ljerka Bilic for President of the District Assembly, warning him that the delegates of Serbian nationality had not signed an oath (using a Croat term "prisega") but rather an oath (using a Serbian term "zakletva" with the same meaning). Mirko Jagitic too, in contrast to Rudolf Kening, the HDZ District Prefect and Andrija Matic, Assistant Prefect, did the same and read the same text about the respect of the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia in the ekavian dialect, which did not seem to bother anyone, at least not openly.

Jacques Paul Klein, UNTAES Transitional Administrator, was right when, in his somewhat recycled speech of welcome to the delegates and congratulations on their election, said that a year ago no one could have thought this possible. He was right: although they were not beaming with joy for what was happening to them, the SDSS delegates observed the scenario and nothing in their behaviour gave reason to the HDZ majority to object. They even prepared snacks in the cinema hall, trying in that way too to express their hospitality. The Croats accepted this and obviously did not mind that they had to water the offered wine with mineral water of the "Prince Milos" brand in green bottles with a label written in Cyrillic script.

Because of the successful scenario, Klein's face was aglow with happiness while he repeated to every journalist who asked him for a statement, that important and visible progress had been achieved in restoring confidence. Aware of who he was dealing with, he also added that he hoped that delegates elected at fair and democratic elections would preserve the multi-ethnic character of this region. And just so as to avoid any misunderstanding, he additionally clarified that the most important thing was for exiles to start returning to their homes in greater numbers, but that that return had to go both ways.

Perhaps that is why, only several days before the District Assembly session in Borovo, Klein sent to Kostajnica his close associate Gerard Fischer in order to investigate and tell him from the horse's mouth what the return of refugees to their homes looked like. Klein has been here for too long and has learned a great deal about everything that happens in the Balkan tavern when lights go out. Although he got slightly carried away by the Croatian-Serbian brotherhood and unity revived in the Borovo movie theatre, it could hardly be expected that it convinced him that the same degree of tolerance will prevail when the refugees start returning to their homes. Now Klein certainly knows everything there is to know about their reception in Hrvatska Kostajnica. If he, nevertheless, gets to see a re-run in Vukovar, he will realize that there are here better script-writers than him - especially when it comes to mass scenes.

DRAGO HEDL