We Won't Give Up Prevlaka

Tudjman first won the elections than ended the war. If things had been the other way around the election outcome would probably have been different. Many in Croatia said the war victory and its diplomatic confirmation are bad for Croatia and criticized it heavily. They feel the concessions were too big.

In his address to the nation after the agreement on the functioning of the Bosnian Federation, Tudjman cautiously announced that the tip of Prevlaka could be exchanged for the hinterland of Dubrovnik to make sure the city is safe for tourists. Tudjman didn't say whether Prevlaka had already been handed over in the agreement: "The Dayton conference also covered the question of Croatia giving the tip of Prevlaka for territories the Croatian Army (HV) has taken in the hinterland of Dubrovnik" and added that the request "was left to be discussed later as part of an overall agreement for solving the crisis in former Yugoslavia".

Prevlaka was first discussed in late 1991 and on the British aircraft carrier Invincible in 1993 agreement was reached on starting negotiations on the peninsula after the normalization of Serb-Croat relations.

What many in Croatia fear is not the trade for Prevlaka or more specifically the Ostra cape but that there are larger and worse trades behind it. Specifically they fear that the Prevlaka trade includes a wider area (Molunat and Konavle) and there are also fears that there could be trading with Eastern Slavonia. Some assume that a precedent in the change of the borders of the former Yugoslav republics (Prevlaka) could be the pattern for other changes. The Croatian public is extremely sensitive about the borders.

The Bosnian Posavina area is also the topic of fierce debates. Bosnian Federation President Kresimir Zubak asked his federal parliament for support to reject the agreement on the Posavina or he will resign. That issue was also raised clearly but somewhat diplomatically by Zagreb Cardinal Franjo Kuharic.