CROATIA AND KOSOVO
AIM Zagreb, 9 March, 1998
Forecasts or analytical allegations, because it was not mere fortune-telling or casting lots and crystal gazing, that the war on the territory of former Yugoslavia would end where it has begun, and that dissolution of SFRY is not at all completed, have in the past few days, unfortunately, got their full, bloody confirmation in Kosovo. The so-called southern front has finally been activated, which was whole-heartedly expected back at the time of the war in Croatia. The crisis which has for decades (at least since 1981), in the behavior of the west and the USA, been just an incidental additional weight on the balance of the guilt of Belgrade, has started to boil, and suddenly showed that it can be more dangerous and far-reaching than even the Bosnian. If there had been two (conflicting) parties in the Croatian war, and in the one in Bosnia & Herzegovina three, in both of which the international community achieved its hypocritical goal: the most important thing was that the war did not spill over the borders of the Yu-territory, now there is the headache because of possible scenarios of the outcome of the, for the time being, Albanian-Serbian conflict. This time, participants in the game are the Albanians (the ones from Kosovo, but also from Albania, Macedonia and Montenegro, and even the entire world), the Serbs, the Montenegrins, the Macedonians, but possibly also the Greeks, the Turks, the Bulgarians, and of course the Muslims, because Sandzak is just a gunshot away.
Croatian diplomacy is persistently repeating that Croatia has become an important religious force and an important factor of stability in the region, but when speaking of the rebellion in Kosovo and the Serbian reaction to it, it is just as persistently silent, continuing with the practice to state its stand only concerning issues which directly concern it. One of the rare exceptions was the statement in which it supported a peaceful solution of the crisis in Iraq and today's support to Annan, contrary to, for instance, the neighbouring Hungary which inclined towards the military option. The official Zagreb explicitly stated what it meant with the concept of "region", that is that its interest ends on the banks of the rivers Drina and Danube and that it does not wish to have anything to do with the Balkans. The most urgent job for Croatia is to complete reintegration of Podunavlje and fare as good as possible in Bosnia & Herzegovina, and just partially made it clear to Montenegro that it was ready to negotiate and normalize relations, which is not just intended to weaken Belgrade, but is also of an economic interest.
Just indirectly, from the statements of foreign minister Mate Granic, his deputy Ivo Sanadera or the ambassador in the UN Ivan Simonovic, it becomes clear that Croatia cannot run away from the region it belongs to, nor can it reduce it according to certain criteria of its own. On the occasion of the latest presidential statement of the Security Council on Croatia, the diplomats could not disregard relations with the neighbouring FR Yugoslavia explicitly stating evaluations that the situation in that country could reflect on Croatian circumstances and those in the broader region. It is possible only to guess what the actual Croatian stand is, but for the time being only the people engaged in tourism issued a statement saying that the war in Kosovo was not somewhere far away, but very near, at the Croatian border. After all, however painful it may be for the Croats, the international community, but especially the public, the ordinary people, still perceive the space in which there are five sovereign states now, as Yugoslavia, or at best as former Yugoslavia, so that the war in Kosovo is actually waged in Yugoslavia. If anyone were crazy enough to go for a summer vacation to a country where war is waged, just a casual glance at the map shows how that "far awar land" of Kosovo is actually in the vicinity of Dubrovnik.
The fact that the official diplomacy is silent or just speaks up indirectly does not mean that it is impossible to discern stands or on what side lie the inclinations. The official Croatia, of course, does not dare say that it is in favour of independence of Kosovo, of its union with Albania or in favour of a union of all the Albanians, because by doing it, it would deprive itself of all arguments concerning the Serb issue, but it certainly can create the public opinion and say what it really thinks through its hangers-on. The armed rebellion of the Albanians, which is the top priority news on television for days, was therefore, openly supported by the president of the Croatian Party of Right, Ante Djapic, together with Croatian Television and some newspapers, such as for example Vjesnik.
In the program called Motrista (Viewpoints), a few days ago Djapic declared that "any struggle against the Serb fascist regime was welcome, regardless of the fact that the Albanians did not support our struggle as we had expected". In that same tv program editted by Miljenko Manjkas, the man who came directly from Tudjman's office, exclusive statements of a high officer of the Liberation Army of Kosovo (OVK), who calls himself "Flamur" were carried twice. In these statements, "Flamur" said that the OVK would avenge the innocent victims, and that the enemy of the secret army was not the Serbian nation but paramilitary formations, the police and the army which had killed and set villages on fire in Croatia and Bosnia & Herzegovina. The minimum demand of his organization is autonomy of Kosovo, and if the Serbian regime does not agree to that, all the borders between Kosovo, Albania, Montenegro amnd Macedonia will disappear.
The prsident of the Union of the Albanians in Croatia, Tom Marku, also in Motrista, proclaimed general mobilization and appealed to all the Croat Albanians to join the detachments of volunteers. Another Albanian leader in Croatia, Tom Berisha also claims that Croatia should enable its citizens of Albanian origin to go to Kosovo to join the struggle against those who had destructed Croatia.
There is no doubt what side Croatian emotions are on, but the authorities in Pantovcak are wrong if they think that they can run away from the Balkans by just passing over problems in silence and refusing to state their stand, and if they proclaim "excesses" of certain parties and tv normal for democracy. No matter how far Kosovo may seem to Tudjman and as something that he does not have anything to do with, hopefully he is aware that this is a matter of connected vessels and that to his regret the great powers look upon this space as such, not allowing even Slovenia to wash its hands of the southerners. An editor of the tv daily news programs wondered on Saturday how come the Security Council was so engaged with Croatia at the moment when blood was being shed in Kosovo. Like on similar occasions, he ascribed it to international conspiracy and lack of understanding for Croatian circumstances, failing to see that this was an explicit message to Croatia: no new crisis can be an alibi for your failure to implement what you have signed. The presidential statement is not, as some believe, new nourishment for Milosevic in the sense that there is evidence that the Croats were doing the same, but just the opposite. In order to have a pretext for a possibly vigorous action towards Serbia, the international community must be equally consistent towards Croatia.
After all, what Croatia is reproached for is negligible in comparison with what Belgrade is threatened by - sanctions, military intervention... And Tudjman obviously cannot get rid of the obsession with some international conspiracy, unaware that he himself is the greatest obstacle to Europeization of Croatia, and obviously he has never given up his dream about greater Croatia. And for as long as he continues to act like this, Croatia will be a regional force only to its own people which is showed by sending about ten thousand policemen and members of special units against the protesters on 20 February. The fact that protests had not continued then does not mean that they will not start again soon, what did happen was a manifestation of a police state.
GOJKO MARINKOVIC