Wrong Choice

VREME: Was your public opposition to the immediate unification of the Krajina with the Republic Srpska (RS) the real reason why you were dismissed from office?

MIKELIC: Nobody ever called me, notified me, by dispatch or by

telephone, that there would be a vote of confidence. There is the decision of the Assembly on the unification and I am commenting on it, indicating all its consequences. I am not a member of Parliament and I cannot revoke this decision. So, if they forced me to resign because they said I had opposed the unification, then they're heading straight for the unification and taking responsibility for the consequences. And if they don't do it what will they say to the people: we forced Mikelic to resign because of that, and the economic situation will be worse than it is now.

The way in which they put the confidence vote on the agenda is totally unconstitutional. The Krajina SDS (Serb Democratic Party) should stop and think whether it is a democratic party.

I think that Babic showed now that our year-long cooperation was artificial, that it was a farce (not on my part). The Government acted always in line with what had been agreed upon either in the course of its sessions or outside them to avoid trouble in the Assembly. If he has decided now to proceed behind my back in this way and discard mutual trust and mutual relations,

because the political deal and his political life are at stake, he should've come out with it before the Assembly. I still think that by bringing about my ruin, Babic, in fact, brought it about on his own head in Krajina and that for a longer time to come. For the sake of some trivial political deal with Martic, because he's afraid of his hawks, Babic, who is almost completely at odds with Martic and sees him as his major opponent (and the other way round), has now joined his ranks. Martic has no makings of a statesman, especially when a state is in its embryonic stage. He wants to rule both the army and the police, and to keep everything under his sway but he is really not up to it.

VREME: Will Krajina and Republic Srpska truly set up their union?

MIKELIC: Karadzic, Krajisnik, Dr. Biljana Plavsic and Koljevic are not ready to assume the responsibility for the prompt unification in a state or a federation, it doesn't matter, which could see a tragedy happen in Lika, Banija, Kordun like the one in Western Slavonia. They do not have the military power to help, nor the economic one, and if the Croats attack which, of course, I don't want to happen. They won't be ready to go on with the

unification and assume such a load. And these, from Krajina, will tell the people: there, we tried the unification, but those from RS don't want it, and now we cannot go further - we're still in the same position, but we expressed the will of the people.

VREME: You are perceived as the Krajina politician who most often confers with the Serbian President . What does he think about the decision on the unification and the vote of no confidence?

MIKELIC: It is only logical that I had frequent contact with President Milosevic during the negotiations. I think he is a real statesman, and Belgrade is a center from which one can follow the developments around the world: how USA, or Russia, or Germany will react. In Krajina, we don't have such possibilities. Moreover, the interests of Krajina and FR Yugoslavia need to be coordinated in one place ; to see how damaging could some of our decisions be if unduly "wild". By this I don't mean that Milosevic has to be obeyed but that his experience and knowledge and the inflow of information from the world over need to be used when concerting the views. While I was conducting negotiations, we used to meet in order to exchange information, and his reactions towards Russia and other countries that I had opportunity to witness, were very often successful. This became obvious later in the course of the negotiations. He never forced me to do anything, nor did he ever say that something had to be done - we appraised the situation together.

I did not discuss with President Milosevic the latest session of our Assembly in Knin and what happened there but it will certainly come up at one of the future meetings. We talked about the session of the Assembly at Borovo Selo and what would happen if this prompt unification process got so far ahead that it would be impossible to check and whether all those who passed that

decision were aware of the gravity it would have for Krajina and RS and FR Yugoslavia.