Vietnam Syndrome Draws Blood

The huge numbers of weapons in the hands of hundreds of people and hundreds of ensuing incidents do not seem to have deterred the advocates of ``Croatian rifles on Croatian shoulders.'' Now it has hopefully become clear that, when there are no other enemies, a Croatian rifle can be used effectively against Croats.

Some motives are already known although the investigation is still underway into the 15th graduation reunion attended by some 11 graduates of the Osijek Administration School.

Beslic returned from the front lines that night with an automatic rifle. He jumped over the locked gate to the Graficar cafe which owner Stjepan Rukavina said was closed to other guests. The reunion party was underway in part of the establishment while another group was celebrating a birthday on the terrace. The party was in full swing and witnesses say they sang two Serbian songs. Those songs infuriated Beslic and he started shooting without warning. He shot through the closed glass doors first then entered the cafe where he emptied his magazine then calmly reloaded and continued firing. He fired a total of 45 bullets. He then placed his rifle and two hand grenades on a table and sat down on the terrace where the police found him.

The scene was grisly. Four people (two waitresses and two guests) were on the floor in pools of blood and eight others were seriously wounded, screaming for help. The guests on the terrace only realized what had happened later. They did not react when they heard the shots thinking that someone was firing into the air to celebrate. That fact shows how normal pistol and rifle shots have become at weddings, birthdays and celebrations.

Beslic's 5th Home Guard Regiment commander refused to comment on the mental condition and earlier behavior of his troops or explain how his soldiers are able to take their weapons home. Nothing was discovered about Beslic (41) at the Information department in Osijek. They only said that everything important had been released to the public and that any further information would be released.

Beslic has been in trouble with the law before and was sentenced by the Osijek district court for endangering public safety. He set fire to the Fruska Gora restaurant over an argument. If the motives to the massacre really lie in the Serbian songs, serious thought should be given to the mood that has been created and the huge drop in tolerance levels. ``None of us knew that man and I don't think we did anything to provoke him,'' Damir Pavlovic, one of guests at the reunion, said. ``The music bothered him? Why, they were folk songs not Chetnik songs.''

It's strange that no public condemnation of the incident has been forthcoming. The City leaders, headed by Dr. Zlatko Kramaric, debated overall security in the city two days later. Kramaric warned that huge amounts of weapons are out of control frequently in the hands of people with mental problems. He recalled that a joint civilian and military body had been set up in 1992 to combat terrorism in Osijek. Journalists who then warned of a Wild West syndrome were proclaimed enemies of Croatia by nationalist leader Branimir Glavas, a ranking Osijek and Baranja official, who also accused them of creating a warped image of Osijek. He explicitly claimed that conditions in Osijek were no different than in any other town along the front lines in Croatia.

Dr Nikola Mandic, head of Psychiatry at Osijek Clinical Hospital, warned long ago that a Vietnam syndrome could appear in Croatia. ``Soldiers in wartime have no time to grieve events such as a loss of friends, jobs, family, limbs or moral values including a loss of humanity, home, environment. That all accumulates after the war. In a state of war soldiers lose those finer emotions towards his wife, children, friends. And he now has to return to a new/old life. Most soldiers had no chance to grieve, that grief did not go its normal course. People like that undergo a warped grief which can cause complete inhibition and emotional upsets. We have to be extremely cautious with people who suffered losses in war. They can frequently react very antisocially in ways that can be lethal to their surroundings. War plows through the human spirit and leaves deep scars behind.''