CROATIA - OTHER POLITICAL EVENTS
Boris Raseta tackles in the May 26, 1997 issue of the Split weekly Feral Tribune the question of the return of exiled Serbs to Croatia.
In early Autumn of last year it could be heard in the political and diplomatic circles in Zagreb that an unofficial agreement has been reached between Croatia and Serbia about the return of the part of Serbs exiled during the Lightning and Storm. The plan - whose existence was confirmed to us from reliable sources - supposedly understood return of a limited number of people in precisely determined areas. What could be gathered at the time, this meant a relatively narrow mountainous belt spreading from North of Dalmatia to North of Lika. Maybe also Western Slavonia, while Banovina, Kordun and sub coastal part of Croatia were excluded. The return, it was said, would be made possible to people who were older or middle age. They would, according to this plan, mainly return to the villages which encircle smaller towns and municipal centers of former Krajina, some eighty hamlets were mentioned.
The plan satisfied both sides due to a number of reasons. With it, so demanded Croatian cooperativeness would be demonstrated to the international community; Croatia would get the possibility to settle in the new Military Krajina the population of desired ethnic background, and Serbia - whose demographic picture is even worse than the Croatian one - the population to settle in Kosovo, but also border regions along the Romanian border, which are practically empty, and practically without a chance for demographic development. There are a lot of empty farms there, and a vast number of unkept fertile acres of land.
The FRY authorities - from minister Milutinovic and on below - said that around 90 percent of refugees from Croatia was able to find themselves or exceptionally settle themselves; that they have secured existence and that they do not want to return. According to the sources among different NGOs a lie is in question: a much larger number of people wanted to return to Croatia, which have encountered a cold reception in Serbia, even a hostile one with the local population, while they lead their life in total poverty and exasperation.
The tempo with which the Government Bureau for the Return of Exiled and Refugees was deciding on the requests to return - without a single complaint from Serbia - indicated that, after all, a deal was made also concerning the number of those that would return.
The political platform that stood behind that plan was quite clear. With its realization, Croatia would get a chance, with an agreement from Serbia and the international community, to rid itself of the disruptive factor in Krajina, and form, long with a the Herceg-bosnian belt in BiH (Drvar, Grahovo, Glamoc), stable logistics, rounding off fully Cazin Krajina, the so called Bihac pocket in the process, towards which it, more or less openly, shows territorial pretensions. Serbia would get - as far s Croatia is concerned - a permanently secure corridor in Posavina and relatively large number of young people from Krajina, which will definitely be needed by that state.
The return of the Serbs during the last year gives additional arguments for the belief in the existence of such a plan. During the last few months, as much as 2000 Serbs returned, almost unnoticed to Knin, and some 500 to Korenica. On the other hand, the number of those returning to southern Lika, Udbina, Gracac and Srb is reduced to symbolics.
The methodology of obstruction of return of Serbs has been developed to perfection. Mines, pressures, threats, beatings, laws which regulate life in the territory of former Krajina, treatment of former (?) Serbian property, employment of those that have returned and movement int their own property lead to the conclusion that only the fittest will survive: the Crotian state has secured for the returning Serbs, and to those that have remained, a form of a reservation.
Source: Split weekly Feral Tribune, May 26, 1997