"TANGO" AMONG THE CROATS

AIM Zagreb, 22 July, 1997

There is no more doubt that the international community is looking for a partner for a dance of "tango" (the name of SFOR operation in which war criminals in Republica Srpska were arrested) among the Croats. The first invitation for this breakneck dance which has suddenly become fashionable in the past few weeks, has already arrived, and the next one is expected soon. The invitation was delivered in one of the strongholds of the struggle for the "Croatian cause" in central Bosnia, in Vitez, where a secret operation of SFOR had taken place on 13 July, which was made known a week later.

The story was publicized by Zagreb weekly Tjednik, describing to the last detail how the "tango" was performed in high style in rugged Vitez, but revealing also a series of other, hardly known or quite unknown details which are in the background of the story. The operation of SFOR started on Sunday morning when two SFOR helicopters flew in from the east of the town and kept buzzing over Vitez for hours, "almost touching rooftops", and the surrounding villages, including the Bosnian Guernica - Ahmici where one of the greatest Croat crimes over the Muslim population had taken place. At the same time, from a secret hideout in the place itself, SFOR armoured transporters crawled out and started patrolling the town, until at 13.00 hours, the aircrafts finally landed.

Soldiers came out of them and hurried towards the house of Drago Josipovic, and when they did not find him at home, they started towards the houses of another two inhabitants of Vitez whose family names (Kupreskic and Papic) are not unknown outside the borders of B&H. They are three out of eight members of the Croat Defence Council (HVO) accused by the international tribunal in the Hague towards the end of 1995 of war crimes in Ahmici in which, according to the indictment, "at least 103 persons" were killed (33 women and children inclusive). It has recently been revealed, however, that this indictment had a bizzare shortage which endangered credibility of the indictment itself, because the accused Stipo Alilovic, alias Brko, had left B&H in March 1992, that is before the Croat-Bosniac war had even begun. What makes matters even worse is that Alilovic was in hospital in Rotterdam in the end of 1995, in fact practically in the vicinity of the international tribunal, where he died of lung cancer - just a month before charges were brought against him.

Nevertheless, this very black-humour episode which almost ruined the reputation of the Hague tribunal, due to unexpected circumstances proved to be its unhoped-for trump card. After this, events started acquiring unexpected acceleration. Because of the mentioned mistake, the remaining seven indicted men submitted an interesting letter to Michael Steiner in mid May, through a mediator, sent to a few addresses (the Hague tribunal, State Department, Madeleine Albright). The letter reveals the unfortunate blunder about Alilovic, allegations of the indictment against the remaining seven are refuted, and most significantly of all, signatories express readiness to meet the investigator from the Hague, and even to show up on trial, but under the condition that it begins immediately and not be postponed, like in the case of Tihomir Blaskic, for months, and even for years.

There are still no signs how this message was received in the Hague, but it immediately caused a reaction at the address to which it had not been sent at all. The Croatian government, at the proposal of the minister of defence Gojko Susak, decided to demand from the Hague tribunal to have the Croats sought by this tribunal tried in Croatia. It was more than clear that it would not at all make certain persons in Zagreb happy if the seven men from Vitez appeared in the Hague and tried to prove their innocence. Because it would undoubtedly mean that the Ahmici dossier would have to be re-opened, and broadening it to include those who had given orders for the military "operation" in Ahmici. And weekly Tjednik suggests that there are plenty of foundation for that by quoting the allegation of an Alilovic's friend that certain Miroslav Bralo had boasted once, drunk, that he had participated in the atrocities in Ahmici. And this man Bralo, who had been, as claimed, arrested personally by Tihomir Blaskic for a series of crimes, was nevertheless released from prison on the eve of the massacre. By whose order, it would probably be a useful information for the Hague tribunal.

In any case, the stand taken by the Croatian government at the demand of Susak - after long hesitation and unwillingly finally agreed to cooperation with the Hague tribunal - obviously irritated the international mediators and probably directly caused the SFOR dance along the streets of Vitez. The fact that the operation had not succeeded the first time, all things considered, did not at all discourage the international military corporation. Two days later, according to Tjednik, it carried out the operation of surrounding Vitez, which means, the weekly concluded, that the indicted men from Vitez were still in it. This could also mean that SFOR was for the time being satisfied just by preventing their flight, and even by postponing their appearance in the Hague just in order to prevent their arrest - since they wish to go there anyway - from being an alibi to Croatia to continue postponement of extradition of bigger fish.

This is even more incredible because a demand has just been renewed to Croatian minister of defence Susak to hand in documents concerning the trial of Blaskic to the Hague tribunal, or appear there himself and explain why he had not handed them in. This demand has at the time induced even some independent international legal experts to shake their heads in suspicion, but now it is clear that it has nothing much to do with Blaskic's trial. The intention is evidently to force Zagreb to reconsider for the last time whether it will manifest loyalty to the tribunal by a direct threat to Croatia and later on to B&H (which, being members of the UN, are formally co-founders of the Hague tribunal). If it refused, Zagreb would be subjected to the same recipe applied concerning the indicted on the Serb party, which has also taken the obligations concerning war criminals in Dayton, but which is nevertheless outside the international judiciary system.

This means that only one thing is demanded from Croatia - extradition. That this demand cannot be ignored any more, least of all ridiculed by the local state media as it is now, became evident a few days ago when the Croatian police arrested, Nebojsa Hodak - Cena (one of Mercep's men known for the murder of Zec family) while he was getting ready to leave the country. It is true that this could be part of the already heard story of sweeping Croatian crimes under the Croatian carpet, just as it was intended by previous arrests of the two greatest Herzegovina "warlords", Mladen Naletilic-Tuta and Vinko Martinovic-Stela, which would be used as proof that Croatia would try its own criminals.

But, at the same time, there is less and less manoeuvring space for such quibbling, and in such narrowed space it is easier to make blunders. The arrest of Naletilic and Martinovic, made for solely internal reasons (more political than criminalistic or victimizational) refuted Tudjman's and Granic's thesis, who claimed that Croatia had no access to Croat criminals in B&H. There was also the thesis that on the territory of Croatia there were no war criminals, because the two were in jail. Nowadays, some Croatian weeklies are announcing that an official demand for their extradition could follow, and others who are known to be here (Mercep, the unnominated general of the Croatian army who is "objectively" responsible for the crimes committed after the military operation Storm).

According to this weekly, there are signs that the Croatian army could nevertheless make certain concessions (extradition of Dario Kordic), in order to buy some breathing space. However, now it is quite probable that the Hague tribunal will not agree any more to consider each case separately, but perhaps the whole "file" of Croat crimes will be illuminated by a single directed flash, with specified names of the accused, addresses where they reside or hide, etc. Weekly Tjednik showed that there was plenty of foundation for that when it published where some accused Bosnian Croats were, although Zagreb claimed that it did not know where they were: Ivan Santic is in Zapresic (Zagreb suburb), Pero Skopljak is in Split, Mario Cerkez in Medjugorje...

MARINKO CULIC