Babic's Swan Song

"My job involves great risk", said Dr. Milan Babic, the president of Serbian Krajina, at the press-conference in Belgrade last week. It is a very precise statement: for three long days (January 31, February 1 and 2) he has been successfully resisting the offensive of the "rest of Yugoslavia". He never raised his voice, his expression never changed and he remained unshaken. Dr. Milan Babic, the provincial dentist whom everyone despised, has survived. He turned out to be a man without prejudice, free from any ideology or faith. His message to, as he put it, "the so-called Presidency of the so-called Yugoslavia" was very clear: "What makes you think you are any better than I am and who do you think you are representing" and "The /military and political/ guarantees of the international community we ask for are more important than the guaranties of a presidency of a state which is withering away. Kostic's and Adzic's promises mean nothing".

Where does his strength come from? This young man, a former member of the Croatian Communist Party's Central Committee and Raskovic's favourite (Raskovic was the first leader of SDS - the Serbian Democratic Party in Krajina), was elected president of the Knin borough in 1991. He got to the top mostly on his own, seconded by Belgrade. His rise is directly connected to the defeat of the original, "legitimate" section of SDS in Croatia.

By the end of September 1990, Dr. Raskovic, the undisputed leader of Serbs in Croatia, left for the United States for a month. While he was there, Babic took over the command (October 16). The present distinction between the partisans and the adversaries of Dr. Babic began on that day. The representatives of Slavonia, Baranja, Banija, Kordun, Rijeka region and Istria were moderate, looking for a solution through negotiations; the representatives of Dalmatia and Lika, however, were staunchly against all dialogue with the Croatian authorities. It was decided to initiate the talks with the representatives of HDZ (Croatian Democratic Union) and other parties, and Dr. Vojislav Vukcevic was handpicked for the role of the negotiator. After his meeting with the people from HDZ, SDS was recognized as the legitimate representative of the Serbian people in Croatia. It was later confirmed that the Serbian delegation was promised that the definition "national state of the Croatian people" will be erased from the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia and that all the disputed issues will be solved "responsibly and more quickly". Official Knin reacted as soon as this was published by denying the legitimacy to the negotiators. It was said that no one but the president of the Serbian National Council - Dr. Milan Babic - had the right to negotiate on behalf of the Serbian people.

Babic thus successfully precluded the dialogue. The representatives of HDZ and the Croatian authorities have said on several occasions that they were waiting for the negotiators but nobody came. The next meeting they had was on March 13, 1991.

The same process of marginalization of the moderate SDS members and leaders took place in Knin as well: Dr. Raskovic was literally chased out of Krajina and other leaders (Zelembaba, Opacic, Tanjga) paid a high price for joining the local SPO (Serbian Revival Party).

In February 1991 Babic founded SDS of Krajina as a separate political party, although he did not manage to became its president. He wasn't very eager to get that title since he already had it all: a state, a party, a government, a police force and he hoped to get an army as well. General conscription and a series of false alarms started, because Dr. Babic solved his problems by producing a crisis. He kept the people under constant tension and changed the political framework every two months. In the meantime, the war broke out and politics took a back seat.

Now Vance's plan suddenly suits everyone. They are all trying to save face. Everything seemed perfect and then Dr. Babic started rocking the boat with all his might. Milosevic tried to discipline him with an arrogant open letter, but Babic replied with well picked allusions and muffled threats. That is how a hypocritical polemics started. It reached its climax at "the so-called Presidency" session. All the participants have known each other for a long time and they have done it all together, while only one of them is to be found guilty. Only this time it concerns the responsibility for an unnecessary war and thousands of dead, not to mention other casualties. Every one of them is aware of that and it is not surprising that the president of Serbia opted for a dignified absence from the half-Presidency session. There was a danger that Babic could ask him a few unpleasant questions.

What does Babic want? What can he really do? It is obvious that he wants to remain the number one man in Krajina and even more than that: he wants Krajina to have the status of an independent federal unit and to have its own representative in "the so-called Presidency". If Kosovo and Vojvodina can, why can't Krajina? Confronted with a refusal, he said he would negotiate with Dr. Tudjman on an equal footing and that, no matter what, he would be the head of an independent state: "Krajina can go it alone!". His faithfuls in Knin say that the army is free to go, but in the way it left Slovenia: without the heavy armament.

However, the economic and social sphere is the Achilles's heel of his power: before the war, Krajina lived on traffic, tourism and trade with its Croatian "rear". Knin lived on the salaries of 3000 railway men; presently the armour train is the only one in use; the war killed off tourism. If "the so-called Yugoslavia" doesn't dare to eliminate Babic by "non- democratic means" (Dr. Branko Kostic), it can always resort to slower and a very simple "democratic way": cutting off the help from Serbia.

Dr. Milan Babic, however, is not the only political authority in Krajina. The day after his press conference in Belgrade (February 3) there was another one called by Raskovic, Zelembaba and Opacic. Dr. Raskovic announced that "SDS of Krajina is back in Croatian politics again" and that the Serbian representatives will return to Croatian Parliament. All three of them called Babic names. Raskovic can't wait to meet Tudjman, which gives the Croatian president the following choice: will he negotiate with the legitimate representatives of Serbs in Croatia who were legally elected in 1990 but who still do not have the power, or with Dr. Babic, whose legitimacy is doubtful, but whose power is real? They both have

well supported arguments: they control the resources which cannot be exploited without Croatia but can be cut off, the vital communication lines between Zagreb and the coast (Split) and tourism in Dalmatia.

After he returned from Belgrade, Dr. Babic announced the referendum in Krajina with a notorious question: "Are you for Cyrus Vance's Peace Plan and the political settlement?". The UN peace-keeping troops are probably coming. Only when they arrive, only when the army retreats from Krajina (if it ever will), the real political battle begins. After two years of perverse political games and a bloody war, we shall find ourselves at the beginning: Serbs in Croatia must decide upon their destiny on their own, without the "fraternal help" which brought us to where we are.