Zubak's Agreed Truth

AIM Zagreb, 12 January, 1998

According to Kresimir Zubak it was not Croatia that divided Bosnia & Herzegovina, but on the contrary, Bosnia & Herzegovina was dismembering Croatia - it is ironically written by Novi list from Rijeka, referring to his interview in Vjesnik in which he replied to numerous reprimands addressed to him in Sarajevo. Kresimir Zubak is doing it very extensively, on a whole page of the pro-regime "large-size" daily and moreover, in the manner which can destroy even the last trace of illusion in everybody who refused to choose sides in the conflict.

    The Croat representative in the Presidency of B&H

replies to his critics according to the principle dirty laundry for dirty laundry, which is especially obvious concerning the mentioned topic of division of B&H. Zubak says that he does not know what Tudjman and Milosevic talked about in Karadjordjevo, but sees nothing problematic or bad about it. Because "even if it were true that they talked about division of B&H, it should be put in the context of that time". And the "context", he adds, was that immediately after that Izetbegovic, Filipovic and Zulfikarpasic on the one side met Karadzic, Krajisnik and Koljevic on the other, and secretly agreed that "Neum and everything further to the south be annexed to Yugoslavia, and that a few municipalities of Croatia be incorporated into B&H". If in Karadjordjevo division of B&H was discussed, the secret Bosniac-Serb meeting went a step further - except about division of this state, division of Croatia was also discussed there.

Zubak uses the same principle in the rest of the interview. To critics from Sarajevo concerning omission of the Muslims from the Croatian Constitution, he replies that this was meddling into organization of Croatia", while at the same time rights of the Croats and the Serbs in B&H are minimized. They are, he says, called "political Croats", and "political Serbs", and "in this context we who are advocating the interests of the Croat people in B&H, are called the servants of Zagreb". There is, however, not a single argument which would contradict this insulting qualification. Moreover, Zubak seems to be making an effort to prove that there is no invective at his expense in which at least something is not true, although he had at his disposal arguments which could at least slightly amnesty him concerning certain matters.

In his previous interview to Globus, he confirmed that in Dayton he had opposed Tudjman concerning surrendering Bosnian Posavina to the Serb entity in B&H. But, this time, he does not even use this as proof that he had opposed division of B&H, even if just a fragment of it. On the contrary, Zubak calmly lets this sin which has nothing to do with him, indirectly fall on his head, which actually is servile. As he already said to Globus, he is now repeating in Vjesnik that Bosniacs too had had their "Posavina" - in eastern Bosnia. He even claims that it is possible to prove on the basis of "official documentation" from negotiations in Dayton that parts of eastern B&H could have become part of the Federation had Izetbegovic and Silajdzic agreed to a different status of Sarajevo.

"The original offer of the international community, more precisely of the USA which led the process, was that Sarajevo be organized as a district which would have the status of the capital and be controlled by representatives of all three nations and in a way be extra-territorial and excluded from the division 51:49. When one has this in mind, says Zubak, then it is quite certain that chance existed for certain parts of eastern Bosnia, and there were such proposals, to become part of the Federation". The two sentences which follow are key for understanding Zubak's interview. To the question why Izetbegovic and Silajdzic did not accept it, he says: "I personally know some of the reasons why the variant on Sarajevo as a district was not accepted, which would have made some of these regions part of the Federation. All information that I have about it, I have never before stated in public, and I am not sure whether I will ever state them. Stating some of these things would just additionally complicate the situation".

By saying this, Zubak reveals that his participation in this polemic was not motivated by a wish to illuminate things from recent history. On the contrary, by insinuated threats to his polemic rivals, he appeals that past be left alone, advocating that concealing the privy parts and secrets from recent past is top Croat (and Bosniac) interest. He speaks about "small Karadjordjevo", agreement between Serb and Bosniac representatives, only to prevent opening of the discussion about the "big" one, he is interested in eastern Bosnia becoming part of the Federation only as far as it prevents probing into the question why "real" Posavina was handed over to the at the time still quite illegal "Republic of Srpska". This is in fact the invitation to establish some kind of "agreed truth" about the past years. It will have nothing in common with the real truth, on the contrary it will be a compromise of two lies about the nineties in this space. But, it will be very useful for both parties.

Regardless of the fact that this tribal gnosiology (which results from the already known slogan that it is a patriotic duty to lie for homeland) could become the subject of humourous analysis, it seems that Zubak's very serious ambitions are in the back of it. After Boban's death, serious illness of the uncrowned king of Herzegovina Gojko Susak, and the arrest or discharge from the posts of almost entire hard-core leadership of former Herzeg-Bosnia, for the first time the opportunity has emerged for a Croat who is not part of this group to become the leader of the Croats in B&H. If he gets the unavoidibale recommendations from the presidential palace in Zagreb - and this always implies additional evidence of ethnic purity and loyalty to the Leader - a candidate with high prospects to get the post could be a comparatively moderate Croat from Central Bosnia - Kresimir Zubak.

It seems that Zubak has already officially publicized that he has such ambitions, moreover, for a long term. In the interview to Globus he stated that he was convinced that the Croat Democratic Communuity (HDZ) would remain the leading force of the Croat people in B&H even after it loses power in thwe parent country. That is how Zubak offered himself as a safe and longterm guarantor of the ruling Croat interests even at the time of the greatest temptations, even when Tudjman's departure may even coincide with the possible attempt of international mediators to definitely eliminate all centrifugal and separatist attempts in B&H. In this sense, painless summing up of the compromising events in recent history could be important evidence of statesman's capabilities, both in relation to unpredictable international mediators and in relation to persistent and importunate political rivals in his own yard.

It probably is not a pure coincidence that one of these rivals, president of the Croat National Council, Ivan Komsic, has also published an interview in another Croatian newspaper, independent Tjednik. Without explicitly mentioning Zubak but obviously polemicizing with him, Komsic says that it is undoubtedly true that Tudjman tried to divide B&H, but also that he still is. That is why he should be believed when he states that during all the past years there was a "continuity of Croatian policy" to B&H. "At work here we really do have continuity of division of Bosnia and a policy established in 1991, a year before the war in Bosnia began", says Komsic without hesitation.

MARINKO CULIC