POST-ELECTORAL BOSNIA
Miodrag Zivanovic, the leader of
the oppositionary Liberal party in Republika Srpska has written an editorial
in the Banjaluka by-weekly Novi Prelom of October 30, 1996, about
the post-electoral develpments in that Bosnia and Herzegovina entity.
The
joint institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, first of all the Presidency
- have begun to operate. A constitutive session of the National parliament
of REpublika Srpska was also held in Banjaluka. On the surface, things have
gone for the better. But, the divisions and obstruction remain. This was
most visible at this session of the RS parliament.
The representatives of
the parliamentary parties have previously agreed in Pale everything that
was necessary: that the text of the swear-in statemnt remains without religious
elemnts, that a religious ceremony is not held at the session itself, that
there is understanding for the personnel solutions that will be proposed.
And so on.
The session had a different course. Momcilo Krajisnik, a big
democrat, rejected all proposals of the opposition through a vote count,
placing a religious content into the swer-in statement and holding an Orthodox
church service at the session itself. After all, it seems that the Serbian
Orthodox Church has gotten a sizeable number of seats in the RS National
parliament. An Orthodox Iran. We cannot go to Europe like this, but I am
certain that the leadership of our Parliament will open and enable us to
have widespread ties with brotherly Teheran. This possibly might be science
fiction - have we returned to Middle ages ?
It seems we have. We are not
in our time, but in time of Karadzic. Krajisnik and company. And secondly,
our Serbian leadership, has looked its interlocutors in the eyes and tricked
them. It has laso tricked the opposition and all normal people. The protests
of the international community, as well as ours, are treated in the media
as yet another international conspiracy against the Serbs. How will we go
from here in such a situation ? Frankly speaking, I don't know. It seems
that the borders of entities are not on the maps but in the heads of certain
people. But no problem, their names are known.
Source: Banjaluka by-weekly Novi Prelom , October 30, 1996
Fahro Memic of the Sarajevo weekly
Svijet looks in the October 17,1996 issue of the magazine at
the political use of the army in Bosnian entities.
Using the war glory and
popularity of certain officers of the BiH Army, HVO ofr the Army of Republika
Srpska, the Bosnia and Herzegovina political parties, first of all the trio
SDA-HDZ-SDS have included them in the pre-electoral campaign, and almost
all popular commanders have found themselves on the party lists.
As it was
known even longer before this, some of the most famous commanders were co-opted
into the actual tops of the ruling parties. As it was expected, the people
have given confidence to the tried war leaders, of which some have already
sat in the parliamentary benches, in the recent infamous constitutive session
of the Bosnia and Herzegovina Parliament.
In that manner, the politics has
practically entere the Army of the Federation and Republica Srpska, which
is contrary, for example, with the Law on Defence of the Federation of BiH,
but also with the Dayton Agreement. This was probably the reason for a series
of conversations held by the commander of the joint command of the BiH Army,
Rasim Delic with a renowned officers politicians.
The concrete reason is
the Article 41 of the mentioned law which says: The officers in the
active service are not allowed to participate in political activities, except
voting... . The commander asked his subordinated to make a choice
between the uniform and civil activity. The reactions came only a few days
after these conversations. The larger number of the politically active officers
resigned to their parliamentary posts. With this, the process of de-politization
of the Army has begun. With the de-politization of the army the conditions
have been created for speedier professionalization of the Army, that is,
the last obstacle has been removed for the formation of the Federation Army
according to the American recipee.
A bitter taste remains though, that the
names of the famous commanders have already been (mis)used for the promotional
purposes of certain political parties, so that their role at
the time before the elections has been played.
Source: Sarajevo weekly Svijet , October 17, 1996
Regular military affairs commentator of the Podgorica
weekly Monitor , Vladimir Jovanovic, looks at the political importance
of the military-industrial complex located in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in
the October 25, 1996 issue of that magazine.
The process of the consolidation
of the armed forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina is based also on the reconstruction
of the imposing complex of the military industry. During the times of the
existence of SFRY, the largest part of the Yugoslav special industry 952
percent) was concentrated in the central parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina,
which was in accordance with the theory of giving the final battle in the
Bosnian mountains in the case of the invasion from Warsaw or NATO pact.
Due to the unfavorable ethnic spread, in which the most important Bosnian
military factories were located in the areas with Croatian or Bosnian majority,
the Serbian generals were left without them; it would turn out that this
was a handicap of which they would become aware only as late as February
1994, when four Galeb G-4 planes which took of from Udbine near
Knin, targreting military-industrial systems in Central Bosnia, where brought
down by NATO planes.
According to some information, the General staff of
the BiH Army has ordered , as far back as the second half of 1993, that
a process of rapid collection of raw material, parts and personnel is initiated,
so that production could be undertaken in the factories which were under
its control.But, the program could hardly be realized on a larger scale,
due to the conflict with HVO.
The Washington agreement on the reconciliation
of Bosniaks and Croats lead to cooperation in the sphere of the reconstruction
of the military-industrial complex: the BiiH army could import spare parts
and raw materials for its factories in Konjic ( Igman - infantry
ammunition), Bugojno ( Slavko Rodic - initial mechanisms for
artillery and mortar arms), and to a lesser extent Bratstvo
in Travnik, where heavy gun and long-range artillery guns are assemlbed.
The point of joint interest was Vitez, the town in the rich Lasva Valley,
located in Central Bosnia. The importance of the town was not only tactical,
since two vital military factories are located in it, for industrial explosives
Vitezit aand the factory for the production of all types of
rocket explosives, gunpowder for the heavy artillery and explosives on the
pentrite basis, Slobodan Princip-Seljo . The factory in Vitez
received the most modern French equipement and the possibility to school
its engineers in France.
By the end of the Seventies, the Vitez factory
would become one of the best known in the world; even the famous Swedish
company Bofors bought gunpowder in Vitez, due to is very high
energy content, with which long range rockets could be fueled. The war,
stopped the production in Vitez, which was again renewed in 1994, when
a new executive board was formed, and when somebody in Zagreb came to the
conclusion that it is better to participate in the production of gunpowder
from Vitez and save large sums of money that way: a kilogram of balistite
bought in Germany at black market prices had a cost for the Chief command
staff of the HV 100 DEM, and it was of average quality, while the top quality
balistite made in Vitez could be bought for less than 30 DEM.
It seems that
it was actually the vital interest of HV to secure a cheap and quality gunpowder
which played a decisive role - despite the rivalry and fears of strengthening
of the BiH Army - in revivivng the production units of the Vitez military-industrial
complex. The Chief headquaters staff of the HV and the General chiefs of
staff of the ABiH, with the joint venture in Vitez, have the capability
to develop a cooperation that should worry Serb generals - wherever they
are. The production units in Vitez, their structure and detailed capacities,
have remained a strictly guarded secret, of which, by coincidence, all four
military commands involved in the Bosnian war are aware of.
The Monitor
source, a former high ranking officer in the Sarajevo military region, estimates
that Slobodan Princip-Seljo and Vitezit factories
were able to produce the fule for a Yugoslav war military of 55 corps or
roughly 1,5 million soldierswithin the doctrine of general nationa war.
What is definitely known is that there is production line in Vitez only
for nitroglycerin and not for nitrocelulosis. This element was previously
brought in from Serbia - from the Milan Blagojevic factory in
Lucani, but this substance is now probably produced in the chemical complexes
of Tuzla.
Some TV footage made last year shows that Tuzla has even received
the Bofors production lines for dilitg of trotyl into mortar
projectiles which JNA did not possess. The restauration of the military
industry in Bosnia is a process with serious and long- term strategic implications.
Relative peace in Mostar, near Bugojno, in the Lasva Valley and elswhere,
which ocurred after the Washington Agreement, has changed the balance of
power, and has made, in the long run, general Ratko Mladic's army an inferior
force.
The special industry in Serbia is in a state of a definitife collapse,
while the only larger quality of the RS Army is represented by the moved
capacity of the Vogosca PRETIS factory for the production of grenades and
rockets. While some of the hypotheses on the possibilites of a new war in
Bosnia, as early as the coming Spring, still seem pretentious, as long as
the serious political conflicts persist, which are caused by the intention
of the RS to unify with Serbia, the reenewal of armed conflict cannot be
fully ruled out by anybody.
But, the military strengthening of the Federal
Bosnian forces, which have, with the support of the Croatian guard brigades
simply wiped out the Serbian defence positions in high Bosnian Krajina last
September and October, will be a stron foundation of Sarajevo in the political
wranglings which are around the bend.
Source: Podgorica weekly Monitor , October 25, 1996
Gojko Beric of the Sarajevo weekly Svijet
looks in the October 3, 1996, issue of that magazine on the polticial role
of the church, exemplified in the September's Bosnian elections.
The Bosnian
elections have confirmed that there is still strong functioning between
the nationalist politics and religious institutions. So, if there is widespread
agreement that the victory of nationalistic parties leads to division of
Bosnia and Herzegovina, this alliance puts it in front of the worshipers
to stimulate such a process.
This does not releive the national leaders
of their key responsibility, but does not either make innocent those whose
job is the preaching and the explication of the religious principles, and
not poltics. The pre-election gatherings of the rulling national parties
understood the obligatory presence of the imam, Nand priests of both Christian
confessions. They were allowed to make fiery nationalistic speeches, where
the Herzegovina Franciscans have again shown themselves to be most trained.
Even though the Pope sits in Rome, they would still prefer that all roads
lead to Mostar, where, before the war, the Bosniaks and the Serbs compriesed
two thirds of the population. As with previous elections, the voters were
to be convinced that the interests of the faith and the nation are one and
the same.
As the half literate masses do not differentiate much betwee the
earth and the sky, the clerical infantry did its job routinely. It infulence
on the results of the last elections is undoubtful. But, at the top of the
church hirerachy there was some restraint. If it is not a question of a
previously agree division of labor, then we are witnessess of new divisions
within the relegious institutions, which has obviously shown itself on the
example of the Catholic church.
The authoritative Reis-Ul-Ulema (Head of
the Muslim faith in Bosnia), dr. Mustafa Ceric did not expose himself too
much in the pre-electoral campaign. But, it is logical to suppose that in
formulating the electoral slogan of the SDA, in your own faith, in
your own land , the top of the Islamic community had its share. This
slogan sounded quite natural and one can hardly complain about it. The problem
arose when it has been interpreted by the imam Dzemal Gadara, who said at
the SDA promotion in Capljina: Jihad is our way, and Kur'an our only
constitution .
Although the imam stressed that his view of the Jihad
is in no way a militant one, a naive statement of a provincial religious
servant got a stressed political background. Inspired by this statement,
at the promotion of the HDZ, again in Capljina, Kresimir Zubak retorted
with an unihdden hatred towards the favorite color of the Spanish poet Lorca:
From here to the sea, only the forest and the grass can be green .
Zubak still did not say that he only wanted to be humorous, and imam Gadara
is quiet too. The top of the Serbian Orthodox church did not want that its
fingers be seen mrddling in the Bosnian elections. This mimicry is probably
the result of the lessons of the four year war in Bosnia and Herzegovina,
in which the SOC played a shameful role. Its ureserved support for Radovan
Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, primary suspects for war crimes, represents an
example of a pitiful connections between religious uniforms and a butcher
regime.
Although it never publicly distanced itself from this embrace, SOC
used the chance of the Bosnian elections as a chance for its top to turn
quiet, letting its hedonistically inclined priests in Republika Srpska to
do their job. And as ithas stepped into Bosnia with its torch of submission
to Milosevic with the slogan where the SOC, is, there is Serbian land ,
the SOC used this elections as the beginning of the strategy of forgetfulness
about its Bosnian adventure.
But, it was exactly the Bosnian elections which
have shown how the departure from a marriage with the regime is too hard
a job for the powerful Catholic church. Cardinal Vinko Puljic, bishops Franjo
Komarica and Ratko Peric, and adjunct bishop Pero Sudar, have adressed,
ahead of the elections bretheren priests, members of orders and all
the population , calling upon them not to vote for those who
have sucked us into this calamity .
The key place of this letter was
the recommendation to Croatian Catholics to renounce their vote to those
who have conducted ethnic cleansings, or the so called humane resettlements.
This was a hard, probably also a dramatic personal decision of cardinal
Puljic and his bishops. They have found themselves in the split between
the Christian principles and the predominant political will of its own people.
Their risky attempt of distancing from the HDZ ended in a fiasco: the Croats
have almost unanimously voted for the party which sucked them into
a great calamity , conducted ethnic cleansing, and following the example
of the Serbian Democratic Party, had its concentration camps.
This still
does not mean that Cardinal Puljic personally and the Catholic church do
not have the influence among their faithful in Bosnia.
The matter is in
the fact that there is much less faithful than the Church wants to admit.
The Church is needed by every nationalistic regime, since with its mediation
it expresses its fake morale as the true one. That is why today the nationally
divided Bosnia is flooded with religious symbols,. This trestifies that
what is in question here is nationalism. and historical experience shows
what it can do.
Source: Sarajevo weekly Svijet , October 3, 1996
MACEDONIA
The political situation in Macedonia is examined by the regular
contributor from Skopje of the Pristina weekly Koha Iso Rusi
in the October 30, 1996 issue of that magazine.
The aggressive presentations
of the parties that participate in the local elections divided in 123 new
units, meant the official initiation of the electoral campaign. The main
political party, SDLM, started its electoral campaign before the time scheduled
by the electoral law. With the help of the state media under the control
of the government, it promoted its candidates for prefects ten days before
the campaign was officially inaugurated. The day the campaign started, it
celebrated a glamorous promotion of its candidates in Manastir (Bitola),
the second largest town which has lately been showing strong opposition
towards the capital, Shkup.
In the promotion, the chairman of the SDLM and
premier Branko Crvenkovski proclaimed its party the constituent of the state!
According to the propaganda, the SDLM considers itself the most deserved
for all what has happened in Macedonia in the past six years - independence,
recognition, membership in the UN ... but also small things as the reduction
of the inflation from 200% (1992) to 0%; the application of the paging system;
the mobile telephone system, in times when Macedonia, according to the SDLM
had a primitive communication system!
The electoral slogan of this party
is Always ahead , therefore it is expected that the wining team
will uncover new spicy trivialities. Following the most advertised SDLM,
come the Liberals, that for the time being confirm that they always knew
what they were doing when they were part of the ruling coalition, but also
now that they consider themselves an opposition party. The slogan The
Liberals Know will be their sign in the elections.
At the eve of the
campaign, they made public many things that the ruling party had done in
the past six years - starting from framing the past parliamentarian elections
up to abuse of power and funds.
Thus, the relationship between the Social-Democrats
and Liberals looks like that of divorced spouses. The Socialist Party, still
member of the ruling coalition, is determined to change its present role,
which is especially emphasized after the election of Ljubisav Ivanov - Zing
as chairman of the party. They will participate in local elections only
in places where they are sure of winning, as is the case with the town of
Ohkr. In full harmony with the new orientation of the Socialists, their
chairman and leadership don't hesitate to criticize the government, although
their ministers participate in it.
In the promotion of the Socialists, it
can often be heard that the government has just too many professors that
are good in theory, but a few economists that know the practice, and that
the government is not good in its work, even reaching good results. The
opposition, which participates in the elections as a coalition - VMRO-DPMNE
/ Democratic Party, is acting as if it were an observer, although the first
surveys show that it has good chances, knowing that a big number of voters
have not yet made up their minds. The third partner in the governmental
coalition, the PPD, has never been in a more inconvenient situation.
However,
the analyses made now by the local institutions and even UNPROFOR have proven
nothing. For the time being, WHO and an American expert, are doing research
and the final results are still unknown. PPDSH tried to gain points using
this misfortune. And so has the PPD, that has severely accused the government,
of which it makes part of. In the first press conference held by Aliti,
he declared with no hesitation that the Macedonian police could have organized
the whole affair, and the intention would be to infirm the PPD and have
it part of the government - but a passive participant.
According to this
scheme, these events would be used aiming at weakening PPD which is almost
certain of winning the majority of the Albanian votes. One thing is certain,
that the party that loses the local elections in its regions, will have
good chances to disappear by the next parliamentary elections. In the meantime,
the events are being used by the media, who knows how many times now, to
discover the destructive role of the Albanians in relation to
Macedonia and the Macedonian state.
Since the beginning, the media has been
referring to the alleged intoxication or the so called intoxication, that
reached its culmination in a comment made by Macedonian TV in the main news
broadcast, accusing the Albanian parties of instigating and even organizing
the incident, based on the instructions they get in Prishtina. They were
also accused of, in essence, copying the events in Kosova of the end of
the '80s. The satanization of Albanians and the accusation that they are
to blame for everything that is happening in Macedonia has become totally
irrational. Not even a logical explanation that 1000 kids can't act deceived
by someone, is valid any longer.
Even if it were so, why is the police quiet
and discovers nothing even when the government stated that something was
found? The Albanian partners in government are precisely asking the police
to fulfil its legal and constitutional obligations and come out with the
outcome of the investigations, regardless of the results. Another event,
the meeting of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts celebrated in Sremski
Karlovci on the Serbs in Macedonia was also severely criticized
by the Macedonian media.
The theses about the threats against the Serbs
and even the non-existence of the Macedonian people, or who created the
Macedonians, etc. were heard on this meeting. The emotional stress is again
highly concentrated, although in what was published from the conference
in Nova Makedonija , it could easily be ascertained that nothing
much extreme was said about Macedonians in Sremski Karlovci.
Although the
officials wish to show this period of Macedonia's independence as a period
in which many things have been done in favor of the transformation of the
old Socialist state into the new democratic one, it seems that many things
have not changed, as in the sphere of politics, where the enemies
are still treated in the same way as before.
Source: Pristina weekly Koha , October 30, 1996
WAR CRIMES
Dejan Anastasijevic of the Belgrade weekly
Vreme looks at the recently established formal cooperation between
FRY and the Hague War Criimes Tribunal in the September 28, 1996 issue of
that magazine.
The Hague Tribunal's office in Belgrade has been working
for a month. Those who believe in the theory of worldwide conspiracy against
the Serbs would probably be disappointed with the opening of the Hague Tribunal's
Belgrade office. Bearing in mind that many regard the tribunal, formed to
investigate war crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia, as an institution
personifying the new world order, they would certainly expect to find a
whole bunch of international spies with their hands full of sophisticated
tracking devices, similar or perhaps identical to those seen in the latest
action thriller Mission Impossible.''
Regrettably for them, the office
bears no resemblance whatsoever to any of the scenes from the movie. There
isn't a satellite telephone, not even a personal computer---one is still
being awaited. The premises are on the fourth floor of the building widely
known as SIV III, near the New Belgrade municipality building. The concrete
building with orange windows is the home of the UN mission in Belgrade,
some branches of the Federal Information Ministry and BKtelevision. The
three individuals working in the tribunal's two offices at present are a
Bulgarian law expert, Dejan Mihov, a prosecutor (a young woman with Yugoslav
roots) and a secretary. They are not allowed to talk to reporters---all
contacts are arranged by Susan Manuel, the spokeswoman of the UN Belgrade
office.
Consent in principle to open a Hague Tribunal office in Belgrade
was given back in spring this year, after the organization's judge in charge
Antonio Cassese had visited the Yugoslav capital. However, technical
and administrative'' difficulties, especially those with issuing visas to
foreign officials, had delayed the implementation of the decision until
August 23, when the office was finally opened in the presence of Graham
Bluett, the tribunal's chief prosecutor.
It remains a mystery whether it
was pure coincidence that the event occurred the day Yugoslavia and Croatia
restored diplomatic relations, but it is quite certain that in terms of
media coverage, the opening of the Hague tribunal's office was overshadowed
by the``historic reconciliation'' between presidents Slobodan Milosevic
of Serbia and Croatia's Franjo Tudjman.
In fact, both the Hague Tribunal
officials and the Belgrade authorities want to keep a low profile on the
organization's activities in the Yugoslav capital. Milosevic, on one side,
doesn't want to play into the hands of the nationally conscious''
opposition accusing him of yielding in to the West far too much, while the
tribunal officials, on the other, know only too well that publicity would
make their work even more difficult, as they are already running the risk
of being charged with working for this or that side in the conflict. The
mere fact that an office has been opened and the agreement in principle
to open branch offices in several towns in the Bosnian Serb Republic, Banjaluka
and Bijeljina to start with, have created the possibility of establishing
some degree of truth about what happened in our neighborhood during the
war.
It is hard to dismiss claims that local judicial bodies would be more
efficient and impartial if they were toinvestigate the war crimes, which
they are obliged to anyway under the current laws. Unfortunately and regrettably,
however, it is unlikely that they will at any time be able to keep up with
the Hague Tribunal, as slow and arduous as its work may seem.
Source: Belgrade
weekly Vreme , September 28, 1996
Svjetlana Kefer and Kresimir
Meler of the Sarajevo weekly Svijet look in the October 17,1996,
issue of that magazine at the case of three officers of the foremr JNA indicted
for war crimes.
The Yugoslav authorities have still not arrested, let alone
delivered the officers of the former JNA and current YA accused for war
crimes committed in the war against Croatia, particularly after the occupation
pf Vukovar, and when they will - it is not known.But in difference to a
few months ago, it is now known that still active officers of the former
JNA - Veselin Sljivancanin, Mile Mrksic and Miroslav Radic will probably
not await their old abe calmly and unpunished.
But, all this under the condition
that Milosevic wins the elections, and that the Army does not get the idea
to bring him down idue to treason of national interestsi. This based on
a fact that reliable sources say that the lower and middle officers, and
even some members of the Generals chief of staff of the YA are filled with
discontent with the current Milosevic policies, and that one can hear more
often the questions like: iHe drew us into the war and he was rodering,
and now we are the only guilty onesi.
The dissatisfaction became even greater
when, a few weeks ago, the higher military prosecutor in the Belgrade called
in Veselin Sljivancanin for a conversation concerning the events in Vukovar
in the period September-November 1991.
At that time, the sources say, the
prosecutor warned Sljivancanin that ihe and his associates have to prepare
good defence, since and official inquiry was demanded from a high place
on the circumstance of the Vukovar siege and the events after the entrance
of the JNA and paramilitary units. After that convesation, Sljivancanin
went to see genral chief of staff of the YA, general Perisic. He was refused
to be seen at first, but then he was told by Perisic that he personally
had no connection with the initiation of an inquiry, and that he would prefer
that it does not come to that, since he feell involved beyond his wishes.
At persistent insisting of Sljivancanin that Perisic as the chief of staff
has to protecty his officers and comrades, Perisic promised that he wall
call a smaller circle of officers who participated in the conflict in Croatia
and that some things will have to be cleared then. The meeting was held
already the next day, and among the present was also the head of the KOS
- military intelligence service, Aca Dimitrijevic as well as the serviceis
former heads Nedeljko Boskovic and Aleksandar Vasiljevic.
According to the
announcements , in the case of the raising of the indictement against certain
citizen, the appropriate court, but not the military one, would recommend
that based on the proof presented by the ICTY, there should be deliverance
to the Hague or a trial in Belgrade with the participation of the judges
of the International court for the territory of former Yugoslavia.
In the
case of the lack of clarity of some of the material, additional investigation
would be done in cooperation with the ICTY investigators. The final decision
on the deliverance or trial in Belgrade would be made by the president of
the state. It was jointly agreed to enlist the services of the Greek lawyer
ealready engaged in the Mladic defence for the defence of the officers who
participated in the war in Croatia, as well as in Bosnia and Herzegovina,
as well as engage the services of the Belgrade law offices of Fila, which
itself is inclined towards the Serbian Radical Party.
After a few days,
the legal team had a meeting and has prepared a defence which should, according
to its opinion, bring down the complete indictement of the ICTY and immediately
bring into a very unpleasant situation Milosevic, Jovic and company. What
are the grounds for the defence of the JNA war criminals ? In the introduction,
it says that in the summer of 1990, and later, the HDZ, the extremelly nationalistic
party, created paramilitary forces, after it has won the parliamentary elections
in Croatia. Since that time, persecution of the Serbian population started,
as well as individual attack on the members of the JNA and military installations.
On the territory of former SR Croatia a number of paramilitary formations
was formed and long range weapons was being brought in from Hungary, as
well as some other statersi.
Then comes a list of the Articles of the SFRY
Comstitution, which have been, according to the opinion of the then political
and military leadership blatantly breached by the Croatian authorities.
The defence cites that iparamilitary forces started taking over the control
over vital installations in the cities in Croatia, as well as block the
barracks and mark the appartments where the members of the JNA lived, as
well as organize their liquidation. A number of criminal acts has been committed
in that manner, including Article 114 of the Yugoslav Criminal Lawi.
Then
the defence describes the events concerning the preparations for the beginning
of the aggression on Croatia, and it is then stated that Slobodan Milosevic
personnaly went around the army garrisons, together with Borisav Jovic,
Dobrica Cosic and Mihalj Kertes, stressing in all his conversations with
military officers that it will be necessary to go to war in Croatia,
since the Ustashi forces and paramilitary units will not be broken otherwise,
and the Serbs in Croatia will remain without any other protection .
It
is also stated that the military top, as well as all of the officers
and soldiers followed the orders of the president of the state, Sejdo Bajramovic
and Serbia, Slobodan Milosevic.
Falling within the scope of those orders
is the arming of the Serbian population and the participation of the JNA
forces in the overtaking of Glina, Plitvice, Croatian Kostajnica and other
places which were taken over by paramilitary an illegal forces in Croatia,
among whom were the persons dealing in terrorism and participated in the
attacks on the Yugoslav diplomatic offices .
The legal team states
that at that time the overtaking of barracks and JNA buildings occurred.,
which at the given time was the regular army on the territory of the SFRY,
while the Croatian parliament proclaimed unilateral secession. The Serbian
population was systematically mistreated, its houses were mined, and a few
hundred Serbs went missing, without a trace to this day. Such activity represented
a direct attack on the security, integrity and sovereignty of the SFRY,
so the members of the JNA had no other choice but make repprisals, attacking
vital targets on the parts of the Yugoslav territory where the rebel forces
were active, after their installations were attacked.
The responsibility
for the victims falls on the participants and the organizers of the military
rebellion, who have placed their command and firing positions in the locations
forbidden by the international conventions, such as the water towers, sacral
objects, cemeteries, schools, kindergardens, and so on, including the hospitals.
Besides that, the paramilitary formations refused to give up the arms to
the JNA, so that the use of military force was necessary measure, due to
whixh it was impossible to evade civil victims . As the conflict evolved,
the military intelligence service gathered the data about the crimes on
the Croatian side, and it automatically brought down indictements, which
were immediately carried out.
The fact that there were wounded among the
punished in this case is not important, because many of them inflicted the
wounds themselves, hiding in the hospital to evade capital punishment. In
any case, the hospital doctro Vesna Bosanac gave the accused the list of
these people, which confirms that there is no guilt with the indicted officers.Along
with this, they carried out the orders of the supreme command and the state
leadership, which further brings into question their responsibility.
There
is a chance that there were cases on the side of the paramilitary forces,
but this a matter of control of the Ministry of police, since these units
were under ingerencies and direct command of that ministry, and which has
also armed these units .
Source: Sarajevo weekly Svijet ,
October 17, 1996
Vladimir Jovanovic of the Podgorica weekly Monitor
looks at the recent developments concerning Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic,
in the November 8, 1996 issue of that weekly.
The affair was launched from
the pages of this weekly as far as this spring. The article titled Karadzic
on mt. Hilandar (the key Orthodox holy place in the Balkans), has
attracted the domestic and international media attention, it seems, more
for its construction and less for its relaiability.
The information
was denied from a number of sides: from the Holy Mountain, fron the SPC
Patriarchy, and by the bosnian Serb government in Pale. A sudden turn happened
ajust a while ago, after the recent visit of Biljana Plavsic to Greece,
which was of a private nature. The Athens TV station Antena
transmitted the statement of father Vasilije form the Holy Mountain: I
saw Karadzic and Mladic a while ago, and they want to come to Holy Mountain.
It will be our great honor, if they come .
The spokesman of the Greek
government, Dimitris Repas said that his government did not receive any
requests for the arrival of Karadzic and Mladic to Holy Mountain.
Only a
day later, new sensations arrieved. The Italian state TV transmitted the
news that Mladic - died ! The information was impossible to check, and there
was no oficial denial, and the genral was nowhere to be seen. Then the
weekly Telegraf , by the end of October published a sensationalistically
intoned article about the decision that the president of the RS, Biljana
Plavsic, has pensioned around 80 high officers, including Mladic.
The news
was first denied, but then publicly confirmed. The sudden speeding up of
the conflict between the civilian and the military leadership in RS is ocurring
as a consequence of the serious administrative changes after the September
elections. Supposedly, the General command headquaters of the army is scrapped,
and transoformed into a General army command, while in his letter to the
weekly NIN, colonel Milutinovic, a close aide of Mladic, says that ms Plavsic
intends to form a miltary cabinet within the Supreme command, whose inevetable
chief would be her, and in that manner she would take over the command of
the army.
Nobody, in this whole operation of taking over the control of
the army, does not bring into question thepremise that the strings behind
these moves of ms. Plavsic are pulled by Radovan Karadzic.
Source: Podgorica
weekly Monitor , November 8, 1996
COMMENTS AND ANALYSES
Zlatko
Dizdarevic of the Sarajevo weekly Svijet comments in the October
10, 1996 issue of the magazine the lifting of the sanctions against FRY
and the political position of Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic.
The
statement spoken as far back as the beginning of the war by Sarajevo cynics,
according to which Slobodan Milosevic, called then the Balkan Butcher ,
will at some point receive the Nobel Peace prize, is not being mentioned
with as much irony as it was then. The terrain for such an untangling of
the Yugoslav drama really seems to be prepared with full steam. The man
who has, in such a bloody manner, realized the historical dream of Serb
megalomaniacs today is - based on the decision of the West - the
key man of the peace process in former Yugoslavia . The fact that he
is glorified as such in his state is a logical result of the general situation
there.
The true problem is, actually, on the other side. As a welcome to
the meeting of reconciliation in Paris,the UN Security Council has terminated
the sanctions to the first Serbian comrade, and today's gentleman
from Dedinje.With this,along with other things, the negotiating position
of Milosevic, as the West's favorite, was furhter strengthened for his meeting
with Izetbegovic, who came to Paris, only more formally recognized, than
he was before the elections.
So,the termination of sanctions to Belgrade,
has no connection with the sanctions themselves, and particularly not with
the conditions which were stressed when the sanctions were introduced. Formally,
it turns out that the conditions for the termination of the sanctions within
the Dayton agreement are fullfilled, although to everybody living in Bosnia
it is clear that except fro the end of the shooting (for now), nothing is
like it was written in Dayton.
Of course, none of the Deytonees ,
will ever admit that, and the Security Council will vote as it is whispered
in its ear. Those whixpering, as it is known, are those who wrote the non-abided
by Dayton ultimatum. If, honestly speaking, a more acceptable reason was
searched for the termination of the sanctions to Serbia, than this could
be only to enable it to strengthen economically so that it would be able
to pay Bosnia (and Croatia) enormous war damages.
But there, unfortunately,
the circle fro Bosnia closes. Whatever was outside the circle, has been
a long time ago defined by the strategic line of British diplomacy, which
was, in these regions, absoulutely consistent and unchanged from the beginning:
in various regional local conflicts the most numerous and strongest
should be supported. The authors of this political wisdom have recognized
Milosevic as the strongest and most numerous. The problem was how to persuade
the evil public that Balkan butcher is that no more, but on
the contrary, he is now becoming the peacemaker , nto seen in these regions
before. How much the French and British like him is seen by the picture
from the airport in Paris, when Milosevic came in for the meeting. He was
awaited there only by his minister of foreign affairs Milutinovic, who seems
to have been sent there only for this purpose.
The Serbian president will
not be favorite with anybody a bit normal in the West, but big politics
does not depend on personal sympathies or antipathies. In the Bosnian and
Serbian case that is even worse. The Europeans will defend the realpolitiek
line in the Balkans despite the fact that they are defending it on the wrong
man and the wrong country. In this case, these zre Milosevic and Serbia.
Unfortunately, that does not mean that they will not give him that big prize,
only if somebody proves that even that is a part of the realpolitiek .
Those, who are horrified of such a possibility,on the other hand, do not
lead the world politics. The world politics is somwhere else, and in these
regions, it seems, it was fully understood only by the Balkan butcher ,
and has acted accordingly.
Today, five years after he began his bloody pyre,
he has a recognized state, his murderers on this side of the Drina River
have practically gotten their state, the sanctions are terminated, tomorrow
he will embrace Tudjman, the Bosnians are coming to his feet in Belgrade,
and the fact that he is awaited in Paris only by his personal minister is
a passing reality.
Source: Sarajevo weekly Svijet , October 10,
1996
Boris Buden and Demirel Pasalic of the Zagreb by-weekly Arkzin ,
comment on the solution of the Serbian question in Croatia,
in the November 8, issue of the magazine.
The Serbian question in Croatia
finds itself facing its final solution, even though, in the true sense,
it was never posed ! This means that, it was never thought about this question,
nor was there activity towards its solution, based on the premises of modern
democratic politics and culture.
The synthax final solution
intentionally recalls memories of the final solution of the Jewish question,
that is, the Nazi final conflict with the Jewish minority in Germany. The
Croatian solution of the Serbian question falls into that tradition of the
modern European politics, no matter how much its concrete implementation
and its scope differ from the Nazi one.
At that, and based on the Croatian
conflict with Serbian minority, it is not the question to proclaim the policies
and state forming ideology of Franjo Tudjman as Fascist. The similarity
with Nazism does not stem at all from the excesses which came along with
the military action of the Croatian leadership, that is, from the bloody
reality of systematically conducted ethnic cleansing, with all those individual
and collective war crimes, mining of houses, burning of complete villages
and massive breaches of human rights.
On the contrary, the fatal similarity
of the Croatian version of the final solution with thNsazi one
stems from a completely different element - acclamation of the more or less
silent majority, acclamation which did not only decorate the implementation
of the final solution, but has only made it possible. The fact is that more
of the Serbs who were on this side of the front line have disappeared from
Croatia than those who have participated in the armed rebellion against
Croatian authority. This speaks most clearly about what has really happened.
Brifly said: under the ideological premises on which the Croatian independent
statehood has been achieved there could not have been another solution of
the Serbian question, except this final one !
The immortal accolades
for this solution do not belong, in the first place, to Franjo Tudjman and
his political storm troopers. With his small, everyday hatred, his characterless
indifference, and above all with his social conformism, tihs accolade belongs
to that small, anonymous Croatian man, who was able to carry out on his
fragile back the weight of the national revolution and to achieve its holly
goal - ethnically almost completely pure (one)national state.
The dynamics
of this drama stemmed from the obsessive need to push out of the Croatin
corps the foreign, enemy, element, personified in the evil Serb. The goal
has been almost completely achieved. The Serbian question in Croatia has
been finally achieved. The only remaining problem is the the
one of the so called Croatian Danubian area, that is, the remaining Serbs
in that, to Croatian authority still not accessible territory.
But, this
problem is only of a cosmetic nature. The Serbs are not the element of Croatian
identity except in the manner of their absence. So, one cannot seriously
speak about the possible return of the Serbs to the places which they have
left, whether this was in the region of Western Slavonia, or the former
Krajina, but neither of some significant number of them staying in the areas
where they remain - in Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Srijem. The
task that remains is to ensure an outcome,as peaceful as possible in the
Eastern part of Croatia, more precisely the question of the so called re-integration
of the, until recently, still occupied regions of the Croatian Danube region.
The Croatian state wants to re-integrate as smaller number of Serbs from
that region as possible, and it planly stresses that at every opportunity.
Its priority is, of course, the conclusion of the final solution
of the Serbian question, and not some form of co-existence of different
nations and confessions on its territory.
But, it is not this situtaion
that is unsolvable, but it is made unsolvable by the lack of political will,
which could aid considerably the positive outcome. This political will is
today the prisoner of such political atmosphere which was formed through
the years, the atmosphere of hatred and exclusion whichprevent the positive
outcome of this drama.
By far the largest number of Serb refugees will never
return to Croatia, as well as that the large number of those that find themselves
now in the region of Baranja, Eastern Slavonia and Western Srijem, And who
are Croatian citizens, will soon depart Croatia forever. The small Croatian
man, the one from the mass of chauvinistic haters, will finally get his
satisfaction and find his diminutive happiness - not as much in life in
the raveged, but ethnically pure statelet, as much as in the tragedy of
his compatriots of another religion and nation.
Source: Zagreb by-weekly
Arkzin , November 11, 1996
A similar theme is explored by Mirko
Tepavac, a renowned Serb intellectual, in Split weekly Feral Tribune s
column devoted to guest authors in the October 28, 1996 issue of that magazine.
If the ruling oligarchies do not give up of the services of the aggressive
nationalism, Sebia will finally remain without kosovo, Croatia without democracy,
Bosnia and Herzegovina without a state - and if it allows all this - the
Europe will remain without peace of mind.
And tihs is surely not all that
can happen to us. God Matrs is surely not fully discouraged yet. What I
think of the Srerb aggression is on the same lines as you all do. But, I
think another question remains to be answered: why was it so easy to disturb
the Serbs and move them against the changed system of their Croatian homeland
? The guilt of the proimary perpetrator cannot explain nor excuse everything.
With the disintegration of Yugoslavia, hundreds of thousands of people have
become emigres in newly formed states. To be equal it was not enough anymore
to be a citizen and local, it was necessary to belong to same blood and
same religion. In that manner, the national states have condemned all foreign
to the status of intenal immigrants. When nationalism kidnaps democracy,
it is inevitable that the minorty has threatened national, and
majority civil rights. The incogruity of ethnic and state borders
which has emerged now will be permanent and long lasting. So, a new base
of existence has to be found, the one that accepts and implies that incogruity.
It is essential to create and breed a new culture of national and religious
tolerance. Nobody can be fooled by the states which proclaim to be civil,
but which act as ultra national. As much as there is national and religious
tolerance, that much there will be civilized and civil democracy. This equsion
is not any more solely political, but it is, it can be said, mathematical.
It is absurd that it was Serbia, in which a whole third of the population
are not Serbs, which was, and remains a most clearly cut multiethnic state
in the Balkans and in Europe, has posed its question as a demand for territorial
gathering of all Serbs into one state. The Greater Serbian idea, in that
manner, as with any great national idea, understood aggression, resettlement
and ethnic cleansing.
Now, when it is clear that there is no changing of
borders, Serbia is no position to enlarge itself.On the contrary, it can
also remain without Kosovo, and if it continues like this, without Vojvodina
and Sandzak too. The wider Serbian public, although it is a slow process,
visibly is becoming aware of the fact that the idea of a Great Serbia is
in its essence anti Serbian. Practically, Serbia has cleaned Croatia from
Serbs, which Croatia, by itself, could not have, nor would not dare do,
if Serbia did not raise the rebellion of Serbs against their Croatian homeland.
Croatia cannot answer for that sin of Serbia, but it can correct its sins
done towards the Serbs. There is very little unforgivable sins, and collective
ones cannot exsist. Seria was not punished, punished were Serbs from Croatia,
and most cruelly those who were most innocent. The majority of Serbs will
never return, some becuase they are affraid, some because they do not want
that anymore.
Somebody can be happy because of this, some will be sorry,
but the right to return remain unalienable, natural right which cannot be
taken away from anybody. The driminals will definitely not return, and most,
unfortunately, will never answer for their crimes. If all guilts were collective,
there would be no war criminals.
Source: Split wekly Feral Tribune
October 28, 1996
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