Bosnia In The West

It is a surreal road from the last Croatian police checkpoint near Turanj (in the vicinity of Karlovac), then through the strip of land controlled by the Jordanian and Polish UNPROFOR troops, and to the checkpoint contolled by the Serb Krajina police.

At first, a usual sight on the border between Croatia and UNPA's: the Croatian soliders swearing out loud while unloading the cargo from two trucks of the Jordanian blue beretsmostly children's toys, but also small TV sets and sattelite anntenaes, apparently essential to the Jordanian battalion. Several hundred meters farther away fact and fiction blend as the passengers on board four ``Agrokomerc'' buses equipped with air conditioners and TV sets cruise along the damaged tar road, passing by demolished houses in the villages and hamlets... And then a forty kilometerlong strip of the hopelessly deserted territory of the Republic of Serb Krajina, that escaped the ravages of war.

A ramp and a sign saying ``Republic of BosniaHerzegovina, Autonomous Province Western Bosnia'' welcome a rare traveller after sandwiches from all kinds of militias and UNPROFOR soliders exhausted by boredom. Actually, that is the only official border crossing into BosniaHerzegovina, but it is rarely used since the official authorities in Sarajevo refuse to recognize it as they refuse to acknowledge the autonomy of Western Bosnia.

Velika Kladusa, just like the entire region of Bihac, is surrounded by a 250kilometerthick ``wall'' of Serb territories (the Bosnian Serb Republic to the south, and the Republic of Serb Krajina to the north). This wall also separates the area from the closest territory controlled by the Army of BosniaHerzegovina. Since September 27, last year, when it declared its autonomy, this region has been divided into two halves that are locked in combat in an ever fiercer war. The official authorities in Sarajevo proclaimed the declaration of autonomy illegal and ordered the Fifth Corps of the Army of BH (whose headquarters is in Bihac) to take over.

The Fifth Corps was successful in Bihac and Cazin, apart from several civilian victims, but failed in Velika Kladusa. VREME learned from Abdic's associates that he was the one who cancelled the last round of talks with Haris Silajdzic, the Prime Minister of BH, as the representative of official Sarajevo, scheduled for June 26 in Zagreb, because Fikret Abdic did not want it to look like he was forced to the negotiating table by the offensive. When asked whether the Autonomous Province of Western Bosnia was legitmate, Abdic told us in the castle that overlooks Kladusa, where he and his family have been since the war began, ``our decision was supported by two thirds of the citizens and the legal assembly of our municipality. Unlike us, Alija Izetbegovic only has a decision of some former assembly of some former republic that no longer comprises any of the constitutive peoples of BH.''

Although a monthold offensive is underway by the Fifth Corps against Western Bosnia's defence forces that are loyal to Abdic, life in Velika Kladusa looks normal at first sight. Thanks to good relations with the Serb surrounding the pocket and with Croatia, the town is well supplied and production is slowly being revived. The people recall times when a bag of flour cost 350 DM and a kilo of sugar 80 DM as a bad dream. One can find everything on the local market: a liter of milk for 2.5 DM, a kilo of meat for about 10, a pack of smuggled Marlboro's for 3 and a liter of petrol for about 2.5 DM. Young policewomen in the streets attract your attention. They took the place of their collegues who are now on the front. About 530 people are now working in the province. The 80 per cent unemployment is an improvement in comparison with the worst times when 97 per cent were out of work. For many this is a confirmation that Abdic has made the right choice and that autonomy has paid off.

The parliamentary life in the province is basically frozen. Most MP's (between 60 and 65 people) of the Party of Democratic Action (SDA) joined Abdic's Muslim Democratic Party (DPM), others left for Bihac, and some opponents of Abdic's policy ended up behind bars. Life at the crossroads of Bosnia, Croatia, and Serb Krajina is symbolises the victory of a healthy business spirit over national divisions. Ramo Hickic, the Minister of Economy in the Government of AP Western Bosnia, did not try to hide the fact that the lifts in the building of the province government run on electricity from Krajina, ``It is no secret that one of two megawatts that we need comes from the Republic of Serb Krajina. We buy it at a high price, ten cents per one kilowatthour.'' The foodstuffs from Velika Kladusa go to Serb Krajina in return. Everybody knows, but no one was willing to confirm it officially, that some electricity is paid by exporting Croatian oil. A stable partnership has been created. The Muslims supply Croatian oil to the Republic of Serb Krajina, Croatia is satisfied as it has an ally that shatters the idea of unitary Bosnia, while AP Western Bosnia uses Serb Krajina as a corridor and a link with the west that enables her to survive.

Bozidar Sicel, the Speaker of the Constitutional Assembly of AP Western Bosnia, said, ``Our situation will change dramatically if the Serbs do not become a part of the future federation of BosniaHerzegovina. That federation would be meaningless to us. That is why we want our autonomy, to be able to decide our fate. Even if we remain a canton, we will demand additional economic freedom and the right to decide about peace and war.'' When this journalist said that was the fundamental right of every state, Sicar replied, ``Even if it were so, we cannot allow someone to decide in our name in Paris that we will have to go to war with those who surround us or with Croats. On the other hand, we cannot approve the killing of 300,000 Muslims in our enclave because of a possiblity that we could remain within the alliance of Serb lands.'' It is still not certain when Abdic's province will assume all competencies of a state (in relation to Sarajevo), but it is certain that, as Fikret Abdic put it, ``the people will approve this move in a referendum, as they did before.''

All conditions for the most brutal of all the wars on the territory of former Yugoslavia have been created. While the frontline with the Serbs is quiet, Muslims are fighting Muslims just ten minutes away from Velika Kladusa. Third Brigade troops on positions near Pecigrad, the sight of fierce fighting several days ago, are not sure how to describe their enemy. Their commander Cicmo admits that they sustained heavy losses at the very beginning when the men were unwilling to fire at the Fifth Corps soldiers who stormed their positions shouting, ``Allahu Akhbar.'' Most of the fighters on the front are local peasants. When the wind picks up, the stench of disintegrating bodies of the enemy that no one comes to remove, spreads over the area.

M84 cartridges, called ``the sowers of death,'' that are produced in Kragujevac, Serbia, are strewn all over the woods. The main suppliers of arms and ammunition are the Serbs who surround the region. The fighters explained that that the Serbs also supply the Fifth Corps with arms and ammunition, but they charge them as much as five times more. In the meantime, explosions can be heard. Between craters and landmines, the Muslims show their wounds and explain that ``Mujahedins'' are a danger to all Europe. But, are the Muslims from Kladusa, who speak about the dangers the Mujahedins from Sarajevo bring, real Muslims?!

``Have you gone mad? Of course, we are. But, we are not fanatics and criminals like those from the Fifth Corps. We all bow, go to mosque, and respect the Koran. We do not need an Islamic state of Alija Izetbegovic. Whether my sister will wear a veil, is up to her to decide an not up to some stupid effendi,'' said Ibrahim Usic, whose house located on the demarkation line was turned into a bunker after the last Fifth Corps offensive. Helmija Durakovic, the head of the Islamic community in Velika Kladusa, who was wounded in both arms on the positions of the Second Brigade, added, ``Alija Izetbegovic has always been radical and I have never agreed with him. I remember him saying a long time ago during a lecture he delivered that a true Muslim must never give or take the blood of the infidels. Since the very beginning of Islam, the Shi'ites have been in conflict with the Sunnites whose teaching is closer to our beliefs. We are not traitors, we are simply closer to the West. That is Bosnia in the West.''

Together with 28 priests, Effendi Durakovic was excommunicated by the Sarajevo Islamic authorites. Aided by Saudi Arabia, these authorities prevented a group of about fifteen family members of dead soldiers of Western Bosnia's defense forces from going on a pilgrimage to Mecca that Fikret Abdic organized. Nevertheless, the men on the front insist that autonomy is not a crazy figment of Abdic's imagination. ``Long live our autonomy however small it may be. If we don't make peace with our Serb neigbours, the European mediators will certainly not bring it to us on a plate,'' Omer explained. His brother is in the Fifth Corps. The division that broke up so many families is horrifying. From the trench, accordion player Ibro Velic points his finger at the house fifty meters away, where his wife and a month old son stayed after the Fifth Corps took control of an important height. Izudin Saracevic, the brother of the Defense Minister of AP Western Bosnia, is an assistant commander for religious affairs of the enemy Fifth Corps.

It is difficult to find a soldier who doesn't keep a picture of his father, brother or other close family member now fighting on the other side in his wornout wallet.

A day before leaving I watched the sky over Velika Kladusa that was litteraly ablaze when Abdic's forces shelled the positions of the Fifth Corps for two hours. That day Abdic's seven brigades used heavy weapons, primarily VBR's and cannon, for the fist time against the Fifth Corps that is much stronger. It was not difficult to guess where the museum version of the Russian T34 was headed, when it left the army barracks ``Djuro Nincic'' early in the morning. ``Towards Cazin, to wipe out Mujahedins,'' a military policeman said.

On our departure from the enclave, close to ruined Turanj, we run into an ambulance. A prematurely born baby and a wounded soldier of the autonomist army need the doctor from Karlovac. After six checkpoints the ambulance stops in front of the ramp. The Croatian policeman radios for permission to let the ambulance through and dictates the date and place of birth of a doctor who is massaging the wounded soldier. ``What do you do? It's the border, isn't it?,'' the policeman says nervously while the soldier is slowly dying in eerie silence.