January 20, 1998 issue of the Novi Sad weekly 'Nezavisni' , brought a report by Igor Markovic from Zagreb, which looks at the broader aspects of the UNTAES pull-out from the Podunavlje region in Croatia.

The future of Podunavlje is not, in any case, resolved yet, and in some way it is under a greater question mark than before. Not as much because of the people that live there, but because of the state of democracy in Croatia itself. If we exclude the extremists on both sides, the people of that region have showed what they want in the last few years, when it met, without an incident in Darda, Erdut and other places during Sunday markets. The people have shown their choice, seeking documents and accepting all logistical and bureaucratical glitches concerning their obtaining. It is now up to Croatia to support and help that decision. And this is where the problem arises.

In todays Croatia, the individual is only and solely in the function of the State, there is no basic local democracy, the highest place takes up a decisions about everything, particularly about important themes. The constitutional changes were not put up to a referendum, as everybody normal would expect, there is no public discussion on the freedom of media or the state of human rights. And what many are afraid of - that the Serbs in Croatia will be second rate citizens - has merit. The state is defined as a national state, in which national has priority and has to be held up at any price. Even at the expense of the citizens themselves.

Precisely this determination of the Croatian authority is the biggest enemy of the re- integration processes, and not the recalling of the past and who started it first. There is no peace without social peace, and this is further away than ever. The problem with Serbs in Croatia will arise when in a few months the impoverished population rebels and starts a combat for its legally and constitutionally guaranteed rights, which are not national in character, and when it becomes necessary to invent a state enemy so that the attention can be drawn away from the record state budget, purchase of a new plane for the president, while at the same time around 36 percent of the population is classified as poor, a new set of tricks for the continuation of the episode division of Bosnia from the mentioned series will be invoked.

One of the problems that will be hardest to solve is the return, that is, the reverse process of war migrations. Theoretically, everybody must return to their home. The legal state and the protection of private property must exist - that is a basic premise for any kind of peace. In practice the return of Serbs who are in the FRY is still prevented, the return regulation is selective, Krajina is virtually empty. The refugees from BiH do not want to return, and they find themselves in the houses and on land of the prewar owners, mainly Serbs.

Many concession from both sides have enabled the signing of the Erdut Agreement and all good thing that occurred later. The exodus of Serbs that has been seen in Krajina has been evaded, a military action which would, according to many estimates, finally involve Belgrade directly and lead to war Òuntil final victory or defeat, has been evaded. The most important thing is that, what was implemented, was a civilisationally essential method of solving the conflicts. In that respect, Erdut was, for some, a miracle, but at the same time, the only possible reality. It was only there that the international community, after Krajina, after Sarajevo, after Srebrenica, drew its strongest trump cards and forced all sides to sit around a table.

The dream of a Greater Serbia is concluded in this phase of mega spectacles. But, it remains with the creators of the scenario of reality to do something so that we wont see a continuance. As we know, the continuation of big hits are, as a rule, worse than the original and bring - smaller revenues. Actually, it would suit Croatia much more to see the remake of the episode Re - integration, since the Croatian authority in Podunavlje was much more democratic and more prepared for a dialogue than in the remainder of the country. In many things, Podunavlje became small America, and the propagation of essential civilisational principles in that part of the country is in discrepancy with all other all - national decisions which take us back to dark times of developed feudalism and initial accumulation of capital.

Novi Sad weekly 'Nezavisni', January 20, 1998