FIRST SESSION OF THE CROATIAN FORUM CANCELLED

HDZ AND THE LEADING ROLE OF CROATS IN B&H

AIM Sarajevo, July 12, 1999

Judging by reactions of the HDZ-controlled media, the Croatian Forum and its scheduled and then cancelled first session, are very important for the life of Croats in B&H. It is so important that the ruling Croatian party in B&H attacked the "obstructionists" (the political Croats from HSS, HNZ, NHI, SDP, etc.) from all available weapons as the greatest traitors of the Croatian national interests. Until now they were considered traitors by the very fact that despite the active, healthy and arrogant HDZ they dared establish another Croatian party.

Today, when someone (none else but the HDZ) allowed them to be Croats outside HDZ, the fact that they decided to think with their own heads is held against them. That much could be concluded from the press favouring the HDZ. And despite they claim that "marginalists only exist for the sake of obstructing things" a significant progress has been made here too. Namely, only a year ago each new pro-Croatian party (or God forbid, Croats in non-Croatian parties) was held guilty simply for existing. However, now when they turn down the HDZ's invitation to joint discussions on all-Croatian interests, they are at least acknowledged the right to have their say on Croatdom and its interests in B&H.

Pressured by the growing crisis of this party on the Croatian scene and the increasing political pressure of the international community on the ruling authorities in B&H, HDZ has started a pro-Bosnian political game in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Aware that nothing will come out of their plans to divide B&H and join it with Croatia and that consequently, there will be no third entity - in other words, aware that the idea they have supported openly only yesterday and are still advocating secretly today, has been defeated - they have declared themselves Bosniac patriots. All the more so as the time has come for their first man Ante Jelavic, President of the Party and Chairman of the State Presidency, to become the first man of the country, which the party he is heading, tried to destroy only until recently. Jelavic's HDZ hastily began developing closer ties with the Croatian parties and especially with the Church, i.e. those who support the idea of B&H as a state and Croats who feel at home in it as in their own land and are not a part of diaspora.

And while an impartial observer could be pleased with the HDZ's getting closer to the policy of genuine Croatian interests in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a decade-long HDZ's behaviour in B&H calls for caution and warns that one should not jump to a conclusion that something has truly changed within the HDZ. Namely, on several occasions the HDZ seemed to have understood problems in B&H and to come up with an acceptable political formula, but each time it turned out to be yet another pre-electoral manoeuvre or a convenient thing to do. Why should it be any different this time? Will it be any different because Ante Jelavic invited leaders of other Croatian parties in B&H to head a column of Croatian returnees to Bosnia and Safet Orucevic, Assistant Lord Mayor of Mostar expressed his "enthusiasm over Jelavic's move"?

And while Franjo Tudjman is busy exposing enemies both in the country and outside it, resorting in his pre-election games to the well-proven prank from the previous system, and while the Croatian economy is in tatters and all indicators of public opinion surveys point to the failure of HDZ's policy it may be thought that the B&H HDZ is already in its "post-Tudjman" era, or better said left to its own devices. In other words, that it is both politically and economically abandoned by the leader of all the Croats, as Tudjman was sycophantically called, and thus deprived of the right to hold an opinion. Namely, they never had an opinion about anything but left the thinking to their leader and the Bosnian Croats paid most dearly for the consequences of Tudjman's "thinking" and political actions and have continued to pay to this very day.

Where did this sudden change come from? If it is sincere there might be a chance of some improvement in view of the announced Stability Pact for this part of Europe. But, in that case the current HDZ leadership would have to explain both to itself and to those who had laid down their lives for some other Croatian cause "when they lied to them"

• now or before? They would have to come to Capljina in railroad cars and tell the exiles from Kakanj that it is in their interest to return home. They would have to tell the denizens of Drvar, Brod and other Croats from the Sava river valley why did they have to abandon their homes. And explain to the Mostar people what had happened to their town and the old bridge. And similar...

However, if this time too HDZ has made a politically opportune move in the short-run, then the Croatian Forum is nothing else but an attempt at preserving the leading role for itself in B&H in the middle of growing democratisation of the Croatian society (i.e.political stratification). Namely, the HDZ wants to transform itself into SK (League of Communists) and turn all other parties into the SSRN (Socialist Alliance of the Working People), Youth League, Trade Union Organisation or similar and place them under the leadership of the Central Committee of the HDZ. This is a cunning move aimed at attracting the Progress Society (Napredak), the Croatian Society and the Church, creating a front around the HDZ, securing a "pardon" for all the party's sins and sharing the responsibility which is being raised by the Hague.

And while the HDZ policy is nothing new, it came as a surprise that the Croatian opposition agreed to talk about its participation in the Croatian Forum without any visible signs of change in the HDZ's political orientation. Especially surprising was rather uncritical conduct of the cultural institutions and the Church which, although avoiding excessive exposure, did not demand to hear the HDZ's stand on Croatian vital interests in B&H vis-a-vis, for example, the return of Croats to Kraljeva Sutjeska, etc. as a gesture of good will, i.e. a shift in its political course.

The total immaturity of the Croatian opposition in B&H and the "leading men" was not only confirmed in the preparatory stage, but came to full expression by the last minute's cancellation of the Forum when Jelavic took the initiative and improved his low political rating. It is a question whether he will know how to take the advantage of this improved rating, or how will this rating be used by those who have cancelled their participation, as well as those who were ready to believe the rashly given promises irrespective of their past experiences - people from the Church and cultural institutions who are always ready to respond to any invitation as long as it is coming from the authorities.

Pluralism offered by the HDZ is a sign of its weakness, but that weakness and pluralism should be used to the benefit of the whole nation and its position in one of the two Croatian states. The final victory of the Croatian people and its interests - democratic B&H and democratic Croatia - should be so transparent so as to justify the HDZ's leading role. Everything else would be but a bluff in a game in which other players are not at a par with the old gambler so that it is sad to watch them each time they masochistically answer his call to play. All the more so as it is known that Westendorp and Kline have done more with their little finger than these parties have achieved together.

Zeljko IVANKOVIC

(AIM Sarajevo)