"GOD'S JUSTICE" IN "OUR BEAUTIFUL HOMELAND"

AIM Zagreb, 2 June, 1997

Saturday issue of Osijek daily Glas Slavonije carried an interesting contribution about a special war which was waged against Croatia and which was initiated, of course, by various intelligence services. "Madeleine Albright has not changed her opinion about the situation in the Republic of Croatia overnight", the journalist of Osijek daily wrote. "The present image was created on the bases of reports from the field, which in the first place show that nowadays not only friends and the so eagerly expected tourists walk around Croatia". About ten days ago, during his visit to Vukovar, Jure Radic, minister of reconstruction, in answer to a question of a local journalist how the incident in Croatian Kostajnica could have happened, bluntly said that the event had been prepared and organized by a foreign intelligence service in order to make more difficult the negotiating position of Mate Granic who was meeting American Secretary of State in Washington at the time. The Croatian state-controlled press, in writing about the developments in Kostajnica, tried

• although not as explicitly as Minister Radic - to include elements of international conspiracy into the sorrowful story from this town. The key evidence that everything was carefully organized in advance in Kostajnica was found by a journal in the fact that immediately after the incident, allegedly by mere chance, a journalist of New York Times turned up on the spot.

That American diplomacy in creating its policy does not rely on methods from the known anecdote about scholastic sages who spent days guessing how many teeth a horse had, was clearly shown by Madeleine Albright. She did not hesitate during the several hours of her visit to Croatia to drop by Kostajnica to see for herself what things are like over there. "I am shocked with what I've seen over there", she said to the journalists. "I spoke about it in general before, but when you see what has happened and when you speak about it with families, people who wished to return here and live in their homes, and who are now living like prisoners or with their relatives - I think it is impermissible". The US Secretary of State slapped Zagreb on both cheeks. First she said to Tudjman, somewhat diplomatically implicitly: "We believe that the future of Croatia belongs to the democratic community we are building and we expect Croatia to abide by the standards of that community, and not the standards of autocratic and violent history of this region". And then almost literally escorted ministers Granic and Radic to Kostajnica, not only to clearly show them how one should be informed from the horse's mouth which they had failed to do, but also to explicitly tell them: "I hope that you will loudly and clearly say that this what is now happening is impermissible".

How dearly the Kostajnica episode could cost Croatia was for the first time last week said by the temporary administrator of UNTAES region Jacques Paul Klein, to Austrian news-agency APA during his stay in Graz. Speaking about the circumstances prevailing in Croatia, he publicly indicated that departure of international military forces from eastern Slavonia could be postponed. He formulated it by saying that 15 July, the previously announced date of expiry of the mandate of UNTAES could be "premature", adding that the international community had invested about 360 million dollars in the operation and that it was by no means the same to it how matters would develop there when UNTAES left. Immediately after the incident in Kostajnica, Klein sent there his director for civilian affairs, Gerad Fischer, person who is well acquainted with the local circumstances and who had played a significant role in civilian affairs in Sector West back at the time of UNPROFOR. Fischer's report to Klein, but also developments on the territory of UNTAES after the elections, must have significantly contributed to the opinion of the transitional administrator Klein about the "premature deadline" for departure of his troops. Klein is getting ready to compile his report to Kofi Annan in a few days and there is no doubt that his recommendation to UN Secretary General - either the end of the mission or its continuation - will greatly influence the decision of the Security Council.

Croatia is very eager to enter Podunavlje as soon as possible, and according to some moves made over there in the past few days - especially after Kostajnica and Klein's announcements of the possibility of prolongation of the UNTAES mandate - it is done with considerable nervousness and clear indications what the population over there can expect when UNTAES is replaced with Croatian authorities. Indeed, the lower the authorities, the less tolerance, which was especially evident in formation of city and municipal councils all around eastern Slavonia. While founding sessions of regional assemblies in Osijek and Vukovar have passed in the spirit of true revival of brotherhood and unity, where everything passed as agreed and with no surprises, establishment of city and municipal councils revealed the full extent of insurmountable differences, unhealed wounds, intolerance and wish to pay off an old score.

The American and British ambassador in Croatia, Galbraith and Hewitt respectively, witnessed the day-long maltreatment at the founding session of the city council of Vukovar, when all inter-partisan agreements between the HDZ and the SDSS on division of posts were broken, but also on apparently commonplace issues such as the right of the Serb ethnic minority to hear (the old Serb anthem) "God's Justice" after intonation of (Croatian national anthem) "Our Beautiful Homeland". Although the statute of the city of Vukovar clearly states that ethnic minorities have the right to intonation of their "festive songs", intonation of the Serb anthem proved to be an insurmountable obstacle for the Vukovar founding session of the city council. The atmosphere became so strained that the councilmen of the HDZ decided to hold the session on their own (this was possible only after two councilmen from Mercep's independent list joined them because the ratio of HDZ and SDSS representatives was 12:12), which not even Galbraith and Hewitt could prevent. Only after infuriated Klein ran into the hall and told HDZ councilmen that - if they failed to reach a compromise with the SDSS - the mandate of UNTAES could last for much longer than certain people could even imagine, about 10 o'clock in the evening, the session was terminated. Vladimir Seks, Vice-Chairman of the Croatian Assembly who was also present at the whole-day haggling in Vukovar, explained the fact that the HDZ gave way for "pragmatic reasons", although he failed to clarify how come pragmatism was applied only after Klein's open threat.

Re-run of Vukovar mangling repeated many times from Beli Manastir, Darda and Jagodnjak, to Tenje and Erdut. A reason was found everywhere not to hold the sessions, and the greatest and insurmountable obstacle was always intonation of the "festive song" of the Serb minority, which the latter believed was "God's justice". Even when a compromise was reached about it (like in Beli Manastir), while the Serb anthem was intoned, HDZ councilmen either left the room or remained seated in protest. And then, on the eve of the Croatian State Day, on the bridge between Brsadin and Borovo, the railway was blown up, which was probably the message of Serb extremists that they were not especially happy about Tudjman's announcement of the arrival of the "train of freedom" down that very railway.

The (vicious) circle which started in Kostajnica was thus closed between Brsadin and Borovo, and now Vojislav Stanimirovic, leader of SDSS, should tell a Croatian journalist that blowing up of the railway was organized by a foreign intelligence service in order to make talks with Madeleine Albright easier for Tudjman. To anyone who wishes to get an insight into the morose Croatian reality from Kostajnica to Borovo, calmly and realistically, and to anyone who does not seek explanations in world conspiracy and mean games of the CIA and the KGB, it will be clear that Klein was perfectly right when he warned the HDZ councilmen in Vukovar - the mandate of UNTAES could last much longer than some may think.

DRAGO HEDL