A Pleasant Surprise

Croatia's apparent generosity to Slavonia Serbs will displease
right-wingers in the ruling party

by By Drago Hedl in Osijek
February 1997

The Croatian government has announced a surprisingly generous
deal for Serbs in Eastern Slavonia once the region, formerly
held by Serb rebels, is fully reintegrated into Croatia.
On January 13, Ivica Kostovic, one of the five
vice-presidents of Croatia, handed a 12-point Letter of Intent
to the head of the UN Transitional Administration in Eastern
Slavonia (UNTAES), retired US General Jacques Klein. The letter
states that over the next two years, Serbs now living in the
UNTAES area will not have to do military service in the Croatian
army. They will have one aide in each of the ministries of
interior, justice, education and culture. Serbs will also hold
the post of deputy governor in the two provinces that make up
the UNTAES area, and two seats are reserved for them in the
Lower House of the Croatian Parliament.

In the local and parliamentary elections scheduled for
March 16, Serbs will be able to vote either in the Croatian
Podunavlje (i.e., Eastern Slavonija, Baranja and Western Srijem)
or in their former places of residence, from which many of them
fled during Croatia's military operations Flash and Storm (in
May and August 1995 respectively). If these people choose to
vote in the Podunavlje, the Serbs will be a majority among the
electorate, although they were not the majority of the
population there before the outbreak of war in 1991. The letter
also offers Serbs full educational and cultural autonomy, and
full health care and social rights for those in the UNTAES area
who are victims of war-particularly invalids, widows and
orphans.

Radical Serb leaders in the UNTAES area had demanded
similar rights of the Croatian government in the hope of
delaying the inevitable return to Croatian rule. They never
expected that Zagreb would grant them. "I think that the Serbs
in the Podunavlje will be very satisfied, as they are being
offered more than they could ever have imagined," said Klein
when he received the Letter of Intent. He predicted that the
Serbs would be "surprised and pleased."

But if Klein and the Serbs are pleased, Croats are
expected to take a different view. Croatian television took
three days to give the public detailed information about the
letter's contents. This was done only after the opposition's
request that Parliament discuss the document, and after the very
negative reception of this generous Croatian offer by the
Refugees' Association. This group represents Croat refugees, and
its occasional radicalism is inspired by the right wing of the
ruling Croatian Democratic Community (HDZ ).

Croatia's sudden conciliatory stance-especially in
giving Serbs in the UNTAES area the right to vote where they
choose-is the result of strong external pressure, particularly
from the US. The Letter of Intent was sent to Klein and the UN
Security Council on the day that the US Assistant Secretary of
State, John Kornblum, arrived in Zagreb. The day after
Kornblum's visit, Ambassador Richard Schifter, an advisor in the
US National Security Council, arrived in Croatia bearing a US
initiative for cooperation in South-East Europe. In Croatia,
such initiatives tend to be interpreted as attempts to renew
Yugoslavia, and the government uses them to scare the public
into submissiveness.

Croatian President Franjo Tudjman had to demonstrate a
cooperative attitude on Eastern Slavonia in order to obtain
guarantees from Kornblum and Schifter that "cooperation in
South-East Europe" would not imply stronger and more formal ties
among the countries of former Yugoslavia. This is the last thing
that Tudjman needs before the upcoming elections. Radicals in
his own party-their appetites whetted by revelations of the
president's ill health-would go on to the attack. Also, part of
the opposition considers the offers made to the Serbs
unacceptable, and is using this to win public support and
eventual votes.

It is more than clear that Tudjman will have problems
within his party's ranks. This is best indicated by statements
from Branimir Glavas, the governor of the Osijek-Baranja
province, a prominent figure on the HDZ right wing and one of
the party's founders. Although formally Glavas's position has
little importance on the Croatian political scene (he is only
one out of 21 provincial governors), his links with the
Herzegovinan lobby, and especially with Defence Minister Gojko
Susak, make him a power behind the scenes. Glavas adamantly
opposed any concession to the Serbs and was particularly
arrogant towards the peace-keeping force headed by Klein. In a
recent interview with Croatia's largest circulation daily,
Vecernji List, Glavas said that he could not "approve of the
methods and style of work of the people at the head of UNTAES,
which consist of blackmailing the entire Croatian people." He
described the representatives in the Croatian government's
Office for the Implementation of Peaceful Reintegration, who
work in cooperation with Klein, as "domestic schemers" and Klein
and his associates as "spies of all sorts."

After this interview, Ivica Vrkic, the head of the
reintegration office, offered his resignation. Klein told
Tudjman that if Vrkic were to step down, he himself would resign
as administrator of UNTAES. The head of UNTAES had on a number
of previous occasions warned of "local extremist politicians"
stalling the process of peaceful reintegration, alluding
principally to Glavas. Tudjman, under pressure from the West,
did not want Klein to go. His government backed Vrkic, who
remained in office in the face of Glavas's attacks.
Glavas, too, remains in post, at least for the moment,
although his departure after the reintegration of Eastern
Slavonija, Baranja and Western Srijem is expected in opposition
circles and also by sources close to UNTAES. Klein apparently
believes that Glavas should leave because the latter's
radicalism towards the Serbs is not only a hindrance to
reintegration, but to the future coexistence of Serbs and Croats
in the area. Hence Glavas's future as provincial governor is
more than a Croatian internal issue. It is above all an
excellent litmus test of Croatia's real intentions towards the
Serbs.

Drago Hedl is an editor with the Split weekly Feral Tribune.