CONFLICT OF SLAVONIAN HAWKS

AIM Osijek, 11 March, 1998

The harmonious political marriage of the two most powerful Slavonians - vice-president of the Croatian state assembly, Vladimior Seks, and the until recently Osijek-Baranja district prefect and nowadays energetic high officer of the Croatian army, Branimir Glavas - seems to have met with a profound and according to many things, hopeless crisis. The known Glavas's saying that "two are necessary for love" and that "confidence can be obliging only if it is mutual", which he has once sent to the address of the Croatian president Franjo Tudjman, nowadays seems to be applicable to his relations with Seks. Both Seks and Glavas belong among founders of the Slavonian - as they often used to stress - "the origional core of the Croat Democratic Community (HDZ)" - and to what extent they are proud of it is best certified by the marble memorial tablet put up proudly for themselves and by themselves besides the football field of Osijek Olimpija where at the "time of darkness" they used to meet illegally.

The political road they travelled after the victory of the HDZ in the first multi-party elections in Croatia was characterized by Seks's turning towards Zagreb, while Glavas chose to govern eastern Slavonia, refusing on several occasions various offers and attractive positions arriving from the Croatian capital. Seks had a very strong stronghold in Glavas, while Glavas needed a strong Zagreb connection which he mostly established with the help of Seks. That is how things had worked for years.

But, when in the beginning of October last year, due to his hardcore stand towards the Serbs in Croatian Podunavlje, under pressure of the international community, Glavas was forced to step down from the post of the Osijek-Baranja district prefect, Seks's assistance was not up to Glavas's expectations. It is true, though, that Glavas's stubbornness in Podunavlje, accompanied by the attacks on prime minister Zlatko Matesa because of shares in Slavonian Bank intended for sale to the European Bank, could hardly be defended even by someone far more influential than Seks. But Glavas obviously remained disappointed, believing that Seks had left him in the lurch without having done everything he could have done to protect him, especially concerning the decision of the leadership of the HDZ to exclude the disobedient district prefect from party life for a year. This happened at the worst possible moment for Glavas, at the time of internal party elections when it was important to get hold of a post in the party for the next four years.

People guessed for months that things had not been a bed of roses between the two close associates, but neither Seks nor Glavas wished to show their differences in public. The first public sign of the split was Seks's agreement to participate in the festivity on the occasion of opening of the department store in Valpovo constructed by Arcus, a company owned by a German entrepreneur of Croatian origin, Franz Weissenberger. At the same time, in the ecstasy of his struggle against crime in the district he administered, Glavas violently attacked Wiessenberger. He called him an "international criminal and swindler" and made his life bitter in many ways in order to make him give up his pilot project in which he intended to invest several ten million German marks in Valpovo and its surroundings. It seems that Weissenberger annoyed Glavas because he would not be controlled. An international scandal broke out, so that the Croatian government finally paid a large sum of money to the German entrepreneur because of the damage caused to him in the conflict with Glavas. It seems that Seks was not sinless in the story of Weiseenberger either, but contrary to Glavas, he saw how the wind blew in time so he did not mind coming to the opening of Weissenberger's department store and thus winning a political point or two on the occasion. Glavas must have been annoyed when Seks praised Weissenberger at the opening, having said that he had wisely handled the injustice done to him.

But, although Seks' allusion was more than clear, at the time it still did not seem that estrangement between Glavas and Seks would acquire proportions of a conflict. What in the case of Weissenberger could still be just discerned became clearer at the time of internal HDZ elections. When he could not continue active participation in party life, Glavas intended to maintain his influence on the district HDZ by means of the people loyal to him. Zoran Kovacevic, an anonymous member of HDZ from Koska, village near Nasice was for that reason installed at the head of the district organization of the HDZ by Glavas himself. But, when the former district prefect was relieved of duty, Zoran Kovacevic, along with his brother Dragan (who was appointed director of Osijek industrial and agricultural combine (IPK), once the second Croatian agricultural complex, by Glavas and enabled to become a member of parliament and president of its economy committee) slowly started denying obedience to his once powerful mentor. Glavas did his best to remove him from the post for that and to impose his man, Berislav Smit, director of Osijek Gradnja. This enterprise had helped Glavas have the tycoon from Janjevo Josip Gucic buy the profitable Slavonija insurance company and the media centre Glas Slavonije which Glavas believed to be the main instrument of his political promotion. Glavas had previously helped Gucic buy the most successful Slavonian enterprise, the Osijek beer brewery, and the department store downtwon Osijek at an exceptionally low price.

Thanks to Drago Krpina and Ivan Valenta who counted the votes at the district electoral convention of the HDZ in Osijek, Zoran Kovacevic remained at the head of the local HDZ. He won 19 votes as opposed to 17 won by Glavas's favourite Smit. The score was very tight, because had the result of voting by any chance been a tie, Smit would have become the president since in the elections for the district assembly of the HDZ, he had won more votes than Kovacevic. Such a result of voting started rumours that Valenta and Krpina had forged the ballots in order to enable Kovacevic to win and in this way eliminated Glavas's influence in the party. A real rebellion started in the ranks of Glavas's supporters, who demanded reception at the headquarters of the party in Zagreb, trying to arrange relieving of duty of, according to them, illegally elected Kovacevic. But, they did not succeed in it. The former district prefect was allegedly angry with Seks and his behavior, who had been at the election session in Osijek, but aware of the disposition of Zagreb, he did not wish to take sides with Glavas.

However, that which could just be discerned in these two cases became more than evident in Glavas's conflict with the other of Kovacevic brothers, the director of Osijek IPK. In search for a new stronghold in Osijek, Seks must have assessed that Kovacevic was a more reliable support than Glavas. That is why he took him to various election conventions of the HDZ in the field, believing that Kovacevic could be of great use to him in the assembly where Seks had again got the role he had wished so badly - that of the leader of the parliamentary majority. Glavas clashed with Dragan Kovacevic as well, because as the president of the supervisory board (one of the members of which is Seks) he opposed his model of privatisation of the once poweful industrial and agricultural complex. It seems that Glavas had intended to help Gucic gain control of the most profitable part of the IPK and in this way penetrate deeper into Osijek.

The interesting political and business relation between Glavas and Gucic has become so conspicuous that Osijek is already believed to be "Gucic's city". Kovacevic wished - and it seems he had whole-hearted support of Seks in it - to privatise IPK in such a way that it would be bought by small share-holders and the management of the enterprise, but later on shares of the small share-holders would be sold to the current management headed by Kovacevic. Glavas then, in his recognizable style, assaulted Dragan Kovacevic. He managed to make two members of the management loyal to him submit resignations in order to leave Kovacevic in the open. But, at a recent Zagreb meeting with owners of Osijek IPK (the Economic and the Slavonian Bank, the Croatian Fund for Privatisation and the Pension Fund) an agreement was reached that together with Kovacevic, Glavas would withdraw from the post of the president of the supervisory board. Seks should have taken Glavas' post and from that post influenced the election of the new director, but later on also supervised privatisation of this still powerful Slavonian enterprise. It seems that everybody believed in the agreement which had been reached, and on the day when the session of the supervisory board was convened at which Glavas's and Kovacevic's resignation should have been accepted, in Vecernji list Seks declared satisfied: "These changes are not intended to cause political conflicts and creation of political bulwarks in a future struggle for power, but it shows a highly developed feeling of responsibilty of Dragan Kovacevic and Branimir Glavas for recovery of Osijek IPK".

But, at the meeting of the supervisory board last Friday Glavas failed to submit his resignation, sitting next to the bewildered Seks. That is how the conflict became obvious and public and, having reached the point from which there is no return, it will most probably escalate. Rumour is already circulating Osijek that Glavas has already sent financial police to the Slavonian Bank to investigate the never clarified circumstances of a scandal when Seks bought a luxurious apartment in Zagreb for mere trifles, under the pretext that he had given up an apartment in Osijek. Glavas is obviously collecting papers and there should be no doubt that he will use them if Seks returns the blow which Glavas publicly struck him in Osijek. As concerning Glavas, his political option was always based on conflicts in which he did not choose rivals according to whether they had once been his friends or his enemies. He knows much about Seks, but Seks is also very well informed about Glavas. That is why the outcome of the battle of the until recently close political associates could depend on the fact in whose drawer - Glavas's or Seks's

• there is more compromising material.

DRAGO HEDL