BANISHED PERSONS AND REFUGEES IN CROATIA

AIM Zagreb, 23 June, 1997

The Croatian law recognizes two categories of displaced persons - banished persons and refugees. All those who were, because of the war, chased away from their houses or apartments which were anywhere on the territory of Croatia are considered to be banished persons, and refugees are all those who were displaced by force from other states. In the case of Croatia, refugees are mostly Croats from Bosnia and Voivodina, while banished persons are citizens of Croatia who were expelled from their homeland between 1991 and 1995. Members of other nations (Bosniacs and some Serbs) banished from Bosnia & Herzegovina during the war, who found refuge in Croatia are also considered to be refugees. During the war years, the number of banished persons and refugees in Croatia varied in most critical moments - according to allegations of the authorities - temoporary accommodation in Croatia was sought and found by more than 600 thousand people, which means that for a time practically every eighth inhabitant of Croatia was banished from a part of Croatia the control of which had been taken by the Serbs, or had emigrated from another state. Nowadays, there are still about 80 thousand banished persons and about 200 thousand refugees in Croatia, mostly Croats from B&H and some Croats from FR Yugoslavia. A new census of refugees and banished persons is just being completed, so that their number is not exactly known.

Accommodation of banished persons and refugees was probably much better during all these years than in other republics of former Yugoslavia: Croatian banished persons were mostly accommodated in hotels along the Adriatic coast and the continental part of the country - just a minor portion of them were in collective centres - they have had a whole series of privileges, from financial aid, free public transportation, to assistance in children's education, and nowadays, if they decide to return to their homes, they are also entitled to considerable state aid in reconstruction of their homes. The state has allocated enormous sums of money for these purposes.

State policy concerning refugees and banished persons is not uniform: it is conditioned by strategic ideas of the state leadership which considers them to be instruments for achievement of political goals. For "internal" needs of Croatia, the principle in force is that all banished Croats can return to their homes. The most significant state goal at the moment is return of the Croats to Podunavlje, that is, to eastern Slavonia, Baranja and western Srijem. In that part of the country, the Serbs are the majority population: along with the 80 thousand Serbs who lived in eastern Slavoniam, Baranja and western Srijem before the war, another forty thousand Serbs from western Slavonia and Krajina, along with some Bosnian Serbs, have been colonized here on a few occasions - in 1991, and then after operations Flash and Storm. Such ethnic structure does not suit the Croatian authorities for a few reasons. First because in this way a comparatively homogeneous territory of Serb majority population has been established in Podunavlje, second, because economically speaking this is a very important region which was among the best developed parts of Croatia before the war, and third - which might be the most important - because this homogeneous Serb majority is in the region which borders with FR Yugoslavia. For the time being, the Serbs in Podunavlje were given the right to establish a joint council of municipalities, which is an office with certain political competences which are smaller than in a polirtical autonomy, but it is not impossible that some day such a demand will appear, especially if the present or similar ethnic structure with Serb majority is preserved.

For that reason, the official Zagreb wishes to see all the Croats who fled from Podunavlje during the war years return to their homeland as soon as possible. There are about 80 thousand of them. According to announcements of Dr Jure Radic, vice-prime minister of the Croatian Government and minister of reconstruction and development, about 40 thousand Croats will return by winter, and the rest, another 40 thousand - will be able to go home next year, after their homes are reconstructed. The necessary precondition for that process is removal of the Serbs who have fled to Podunavlje from Krajina and western Slavonia. However, it is not simple to resolve this problem, because their houses are mostly occupied by the Croats who have fled from B&H and who - for the purpose of return of the Serbs - will have to be moved by the state, some for the third, fourth time, and adequate accommodation will have to be sought for them. Complexity of this process points out to the conclusion that return of the Croats to Podunavlje will by no means proceed at the rate announced by minister Jure Radic. Return of the Serbs to Krajina is meeting with much more complications than it was announced, so that optimism of Jure Radic will come up against grave obstacles.

The second important group of refugees - which is obviously politically manipulated - are the Croats from Bosnia. Majority of them are from Bosanska Posavina, and a smaller number of them are from central Bosnia and Bosnian Krajina. The official Zagreb has never insisted on their return. Croatian policy towards Bosnia starts from the fact that the Croats should colonize only western Bosnia, regions which were mostly populated by the Serbs (Bosnian Krajina, Drvar, Grahovo, Glamoc, etc). Bosnian Croats unwillingly and rarely accept this possibility, because Drvar and Grahovo are objectively much worse solutions than Bosanski Brod or Banja Luka, but Croatian policy does not seem to be ready to give up the intention to fatten the "Croatian crescent" around its soft belly and create a new antemurale christianitatis for the Croatian state.

The most curious thing about it is that the demand for return of the Croats to Posavina has not been made at all. If, for example, 150 thousand Croats returned over there, the whole concept of greater Serbia would go up in smoke, because Bosnian Krajina with Banja Luka would ethnically be cut off from Semberija and eastern Bosnia. If all speculations about "sale" of Bosnian Posavina to the Serbs are taken into account

• and there were many in Croatia all this time - it seems that a clear agreement between Zagreb and Belgrade has been reached. The Croatian state wishes to colonize all the Bosnian Croats - regardless of whether they were banished by the Serbs or the Bosnians - on the territory of former Krajina and in Bosnian Krajina, on federal territories under Croatian control. Equally resolutely, the Croatian policy does not wish to see the Serbs who fled to FR Yugoslavia or B&H return to Republica Srpska. Recently in Vukovar, Franjo Tudjman quite unambiguously stated that such mass return was out of the question and that the Serbs from FRY could return to Croatia only on humanitarian basis, in order to join their families. Moreover, representatives of the Croatian state expressed readiness on several occasions to welcome back all the Croats who are at the moment in Germany, Austria and other countries of western Europe. They would most probably offer permanent residence to them in Krajina, which is half empty and where there are thousands of empty Serb houses.

The state has a clear picture what it wishes to achieve: to group all the Croats on the territory directly or indirectly controlled by Zagreb, to create a new ethnic and demographic reality over there in which ethnic Croats will form absolute majority and then build their vision of a "better future" on that territory. In order to avoid opposition to this plan, political activities of Croatian refugees who wish to return to Posavina or Banja Luka are systematically obstructed. Not even the latest pressures of the USA administration, stronger and more forthright than ever, aimed at forcing Croatia, like all the other countries in the region, to allow return of all refugees did not have any tangible effect. Zagreb said the "historical no" to the return of the Serbs. All things considered, as long as the HDZ remains in power in Croatia, the policy towards refugees will not change.

BORIS RASETA (AIM)