Refugees - Waiting for Another Year

AIM Banja Luka, 29 May, 1998

On 26 May, a meeting was convened of representatives of unions of the Croats from Republica Srpska and representatives of unions of the Serbs banished from Croatia, in order to present to the public the new program of return called "EVIDENT 98" developed by the previously established joint commission for return. The foundation of the program is an "inquiry in writing on interest to return and intentions to dispose of private property", which will in the course of this year be organised among refugees, and the results of which will be presented to governments of the Republic of Croatia and Republica Srpska, the UNHCR, the Office of High Representative (OHR) and other international institutions. "After the inquiry, based on its results and expressed wishes of banished persons and refugees, measures will be proposed for return and exchange of property", it is stated in the conclusions from this joint meeting.

No representative of banished Bosniacs attended the meeting, but they were not forgotten. "We agree that it is necessary to establish contact with representatives of unions of banished Muslims-Bosniacs in order to coordinate and implement the same program on the territory of the Federation of B&H", it is stated in the last conclusion of the text of the program signed by Petar Dzodan in the name of the Union of Serb Refugees from Krajina and Croatia, Stefo Masatovic in the name of the Community of Banished Croats, Lekso Kovac in the name of the Community of Municipal Unions of Banished Serbs, and Bruno Paurevic, in the name of the Association of the Croats of B&H for Return and Imigration.

Public appearannce with this program, after everything that has been happening in the past years and past few days, reveals the long time ago conceived strategy of the protagonists of the war and ethnic cleansing, and it starts from their assessment that majority of the Croat refugees from B&H do not wish to return to RS and central Bosnia, as well as that most of the Serbs do not wish to return to the Federation of B&H. Momcilo Krajisnik, member of Presidency of B&H from RS, in an interview given to the latest issue of Oslobodjenje, seems to be stating joint assessments: "After everything that has happened, 95 per cent of the Croats do not wish to return either, and at least 85 per cent of the Muslims do not wish to return".

Political leaders of all three nations obviously arrived at the evaluation that with passage of time and after numerous excesses, even the last wish to return has been shattered, which enables them to initiate the first phase of a new strategy. According to it, refugees would be "generously" offered the right to freely express their will and decide to either return, or exchange their property, or get a just compensation for it, and then, based on the enormous number of those who do not wish to return, the leaders would be able to make new calculations and seek arrangements with the international community.

The Croat party is persistently refusing to open the process of mass return, passing regulations which complicate the procedure and reduce it to individual and "humanitarian" cases. The latest public appearances of Croatian officials point out to the existence of state plans on welcoming the Croats from Bosnia & Herzegovina and their integration in the "system of Croatia". Radio Free Europe carried recently the statement of Vlatko Pavletic, chairman of the Assembly of Croatia, who said that "Croatia is ready to accept 80 thousand Croats from B&H who are in Germany". Pavletic declared this ten days ago in a conversation with the parliamentary delegation from Germany claiming that it is possible to accomplish this "in a very short time - in the course of this year".

Pavletic's declaration fits in the previous policy of ethnic engineering the Croatian authorities are systematically implementing not only on the territory of Croatia, but also on the territory of B&H where the Croats are ethnic majority. A Croat refugee from Bosnian Posavina who has fled to Slavonski Brod, claims that on the territory of Slavonski Brod whole new settlements of Bosnian Croats are springing up, and that hardly anybody thinks of returning to the right bank of the river Sava. "We are aware that Croatia is not interested for our return. Here we had the status as citizens of Croatia. Why would we return where our survival is uncertain", he says and begs that his name not to be mentioned.

The current government of prime minister Dodik unexpectedly defied this project by insisting that the problem of refugees be resolved as a global problem on the level of former Yugoslavia. The prime minister of RS explains his stand that the return must be two-way by the fact that there are about hundred thousand refugees from Croatia (Slavonia and Krajina) in Republica Srpska who are living in the homes of Croat and Bosniac refugees. "When these people return to Croatia, we will free the space for return of the Bosniacs and the Croats", says Miladin Dragicevic, minister for refugees and displaced persons in the government of RS.

There is lately no great interest for return among the Bosniacs either. Refugees from Srebrenica have already reconciled themselves to the fact that life is better in any central Bosnian town than in the reduced to ashes Srebrenica and their loud protests and demands to return are gradually subsiding. Bosnian refugees who are living in the Croatian village of Bukovica near Travnik have recently hissed off Ejub Ganic when he mentioned the right of the Croats to return to their homes.

Drvar, Derventa and Travnik have too many rhetoric and scenographic similarities to be claimed to be pure coincidences. It seems that this announces even more uncertainty for refugees and displaced persons and stagnation of the effort of the international community to accelerate the process of implementation of this part of the Dayton accords.

Pressures of the international community, at least when Croatia is concerned, could be brought down to mere warnings and cautioning which introduced new people and new promises. Tudjman's recent declaration in Gospic that it was better to suffer sanctions than to lose national pride shows to what extent nationalists are ready to defend what they have accomplished by war. If the world fails to see through the postwar perfidious game of protagonists of war pogroms and persecution, there will be no end for the story of return of refugees and banished persons.

Branko Peric