OSIJEK - CHOPPING GLAVAS'S HEAD OFF

AIM Zagreb, 12 October, 1997

Departure of Branimir Glavas, the absolutely most powerful Croatian district prefect, from the head of the Osijek-Baranja district, the controversial politician in whose way even ministers preferred not be found (to prevent him from wiping them out of it himself), has so far had three official and one semi-official explanation. If a hierarchy of the official explanations were obeyed, the one which arrived from the highest instance - the office of the President of the Republic - should be believed. According to this version, Glavas had submitted resignation "in order to take a new post", and simultaneously with the discharge he was appointed inspector for "administrative and legal affairs and relations between military and civilian authorities in the Central Inspectorate in the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Croatia."

The second explanation which Glavas himself offered in the text of his resignation, significantly differs from the one which had arrived from the President's office. Glavas says that he is leaving the post he occupied since April 1993 "because of offered unreserved confidence" to a part of his associates, "who have betrayed that confidence". Saying that this was a moral act which was "inspired by a feeling of personal responsibility", at this moment already former Osijek-Baranja district prefect, could not resist adding that he believed that his resignation would "be a stimulus and a model to other holders of state power, all with the intention to reinforce confidence of all Croatian people in the Croatian state".

The third official and perhaps the most interesting explanation of Glavas's departure was given by the spokesman of the Croatian Government Neven Jurica, who established, according to the writing of Glas Slavonije, that "Glavas's act has nothing to do""with the article in one of our weeklies", because these two events have "coincided by mere accident". He referred to the article in the weekly "Globus, according to which the International Tribunal for war crimes in the Hague was preparing to bring charges against Branimir Glavas.

The fourth, semi-official explanation was stated by daily Vjesnik which is close to the authorities and which in a commentary titled "Glavas's contribution to reintegration", completely rejecting the district prefect's interpretation of his resignation, claimed that it has nothing to do with the betrayed confidence of his associates. "Knowing Glavas's 'fighting' inclinations this would be a too easy way to abandon the political battlefield", writes Vjesnik and offers his version of explanation of departure of the until recently powerful district prefect: "In the past few days, complaints of UNTAES have multiplied because of certain Glavas's declarations which according to their opinion were slowing down reintegration and did not contribute to re-establishment of confidence in the Danube valley". The conclusion is that Glavas "has gone in the name of peace and tolerance which are above all necessary especially in the district at the head of which he had been for almost five years".

Although it is hard to tell which of the four explanations "holds water" best, it is even harder to come to the bottom of the reasons why Glavas - who claims himself that there had been at least ten attempts to remove him from office

• has come out of the building which is the seat of the district, and from which he had been sovereignly ruling so long, waving a white flag at this very moment. It is a fact that a net was woven around Glavas's name for a long time, which consisted of various threads included in all four explanations, but it is equally a fact that Glavas was so far strong enough to wriggle his way out even when it was believed that he had finally been caught in the net. In the past few months, however, it has become more and more obvious that Glavas was opening too many fronts, but also that he had increasing difficulties in controlling his own moves. His crusade against "his man of exceptional confidence", manager of Slavonian Bank, Ivo Markotic, because Glavas was against selling 35 per cent of shares of this bank to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), was in fact a challenge to Prime Minister Zlatko Matesa. With whole-hearted help of his "Zagreb connection", Vladimir Seks, with whom he had founded the HDZ in Slavonia, Glavas - not for the first time - took over the bulk of the constant struggle of the rightist faction of the HDZ against its moderate part.

It is also a fact that UNTAES had demanded his removal, but Tudjman kept postponing it for as long as he could - he was afraid that without Glavas he would lose the elections in Slavonia (in Osijek, HDZ has never won in any elections), by sending lamb fleece to his disobedient prefect on several occasions, which has never suited him. The man who was until recently the transitional administrator, Jacques Paul Klein, often said in the circle of his associates that Tudjman had given him a personal promise that Glavas would be removed. But, this had not happened, and Klein's successor William Walker had to remind Tudjman of the promise given by indirectly mentioning that the main obstacles to peaceful reintegration of the Danube valley were minister Ljilja Vokic and Prefect Branimir Glavas.

But, certainly the most unpleasant thing for Glavas were rumours about his alleged involvement in war crimes, about which there had been several articles in the newspapers. Immediately after the first multiparty elections in 1990 and the first months of the homeland war, Glavas was secretary of Osijek national defence secretariat, and then commander of defence of the city. In the report of the Serb Democratic Forum and that of certain international organizations, he is believed to be responsible for the death of about ten civilians killed in Osijek in the end of 1991 and the beginning of 1992, as well as the massacre of 19 civilians in Paulin Dvor, a village in the vicinity of Osijek killed in December 1991. Investigators of the Hague Tribunal for war crimes who paid four visits to the UNTAES region in the course of last and this year, showed great interest for these events.

A day before the weekly Globus appeared on the stands, according to certain reliable sources, Glavas was invited to come to Zagreb, where his resignation was agreed, or more precisely extorted. Two interesting circumstances perhaps best testify that for the first time in his political career, Glavas was driven into a corner. The new post he has agreed to accept is far below his political ambitions, but also far below any other post he had been offered before. According to what he himself said, previous offers had referred to much more prominent jobs in the Ministry of Defence, the Government and diplomacy. And second, as few other politicians, Glavas knew exactly the value of good timing: had he not been driven into a corner, it is hard to believe that he would have agreed to resign just a day after, as Jurica said "one of our weeklies" published the so far most serious accusations of the former district prefect - the alleged Hague indictment for a war crime.

Now that the prefect was suddenly dethroned, even the journalists of state controlled media who had written only panegyrics about Glavas have suddenly mustered courage. Even Vecernji list bravely concludes that the new Glavas's post of a military inspector irresistibly reminds of something deja vu: "in the transitional phase of removal from all posts, that is what Spegelj was, and let us also be reminded of Blaskic who was indicted in the Hague".

It seems that Tudjman's desk must have dangerously tilted under the burden of papers on Glavas arriving from various addresses, so the state leader, himself driven into a corner, decided to sacrifice his "enfant terrible". In one of his latest interviews, Glavas clearly sent word to the President that love must be mutual or it is not love at all. "I am aware of my advantages in relation to certain state and political officials, former and current, who have sunk into the mire of abuses, plunder and crime, or sick political ambitions who want my political head because such as I am I do not fit into their political schemes and plans. I am aware that they, such as they are, will continue to use all their might with the President to remove or 'promote' me, and that they will choose neither means nor methods to achieve it. However, while responsible duties are discharged by compromised politicians and high officers of the Croatian army from around me, my silent removal or 'promotion' are out of the question. Let me make myself perfectly clear, if the President unilaterally refuses to continue to place his confidence in me without a justified reason, what else will I have left but to respond in the similar manner. Just as it takes two for love, confidence can only be mutual in order to be binding", said Glavas as clearly as can be.

What will he do now when his political career has started rolling downhill mostly depends on which of the three official explanations of his departure is true. As one of the most revolutionary HDZ cadre, regardless of the fact that he was a fast learner and shimmered on the newly-established Croatian political sky like a star, he failed to learn one important lesson of the system which - he used to brag - he himself had helped destroy. The lesson that every revolution with gusto eats its own children.

DRAGO HEDL

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