Mate in Belgrade, Goran in Zagreb

Mate Granic, the sixth Croatian Foreign Minister, is the first Croatian official to officially visit the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia

Mate Granic's visit was initiated by the U.S. While Croatian Foreign Minister was entering the Serbian Presidency building, his host, Serbian Foreign Minister Milan Milutinovic asked the gathered journalists: "What's up? Is the circus in town?"

Croatian Foreign Minister Granic was welcomed at the Belgrade Airport by FRY Deputy Foreign Minister Radoslav Bulajic, head of the Croatian Belgrade Bureau Zvonimir Markovic and his FRY counterpart in Zagreb Veljko Knezevic. Minister Milutinovic was not there.

Meanwhile in Zagreb, Goran Granic, Mate Granic's younger brother, will probably not become the first opposition Mayor of Zagreb. Croatian President Dr. Franjo Tudjman refused to approve his election and endorse the will of the electorate because he maintains that an opposition government "in the Croatian metropolis would destabilize the country".

The Granic brothers have thus found themselves directly in the heart of Croatian politics and, therefore, indirectly, amid the political games played in the ex-Yugoslavia. The older brother, the Minister, is trying to close an optimal balance sheet of the war tailored to the Craotian President and his Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ). His younger brother, the Mayor, has been set forth as an opposition coalition politician, and many analysts qualify his victory at the Zagreb elections as the beginning of an end to HDZ. As these two things are considerably correlated, rarely anyone denies the importance of both Granic brothers.

Who are the Granic brothers? Mate was born on 19 September 1947 in the Croatian coast resort of Baske Vode. He graduated from the Medical School in 1971, specialized in diabetes at Harvard and in Boston in 1977 and got his Ph.D. in 1980. He became a Professor at the Zagreb Medical School in 1985. He was a Dean at the Medical School and worked in the "Vuk Vrhovac" hospital. Dr. Mate Granic is renowned among his European colleagues.

Mate Granic was not active in politics before 1990, although a number of Tudjman's staff had worked in the hospital "Vuk Vrhovac", most notably ex-Foreign Minister Dr. Ivo Skrabalo and several other of Tudjman's Ministers. Mate Granic became the Croatian Deputy Prime Minister charged with social affairs on 3 August 1990 and later assumed the post of Foreign Minister. He has held on to this post longer than any of his predecessors. In Croatia, he is regarded as a moderate and cautious politician, belonging to the most liberal HDZ wing. Although he has appeared belligerent at times, he cannot be ascribed any chauvinist or extremist statements.

Dr. Mate Granic speaks German and English, skis, plays tennis. He is a gourmet and likes to cook. His wife, Jadranka Granic, is a foreign exchange transactions advisor to the Croatian National Bank Governor. She says she buys her husband the "best-quality" shirts and that the whole family is at his service: he is packed for any kind of trip in 40 minutes. His frequent business trips have won him the nickname "Flying Minister".

Goran Granic was also born in Baske Vode, in 1950. He graduated from the Zagreb College of Electrical Engineering in 1972, completed his graduate studies in 1976 and got his Ph.D. in 1978. He worked in the Croatian Electric-power Institute from 1973 to 1987. Although an eminent expert in his field, he has not won the acclaim his older brother has. After the first multi-party elections in Croatia, Goran Granic was appointed the first Director of the Croatian Electric Power Industry. He has headed the Hrvoje Pozar Power Institute since April 1994.

Goran Granic has made his political career within the Croatian Social-Liberal Party (HSLS). He was elected to the Parliament in 1992 and became the Parliament's Environment Protection Board Chairman in September the same year. In March 1995, he was appointed Chairman of the Croatian Parliament MP Board.

After the last elections in Croatia, HDZ began blaming Goran Granic of designing the HSLS plan to topple the ruling party. Rumors have it that Mate Granic might lose his job because of his brother; well-informed sources say the former will become the head of Tudjman's Cabinet, that is, his private foreign minister. Judging by everything, though, the Granic brothers have no secret arrangement in which one or the other will play the role of the "Trojan horse" in the regime or the opposition, depending on future events. Goran Granic says his brother Mate has not called him up since he decided to run for Zagreb Mayor. And adds that he hasn't called Mate up either.

Both brothers are considered merely proficient executors of the set policies, not their authors. One of Mate Granic's chief assets is said to be his successful correction of Tudjman's frequent diplomatic gaffes, while Goran Granic loyally adheres to the policy of HSLS leader Dragisa Budisa, whose popularity in the party has been seriously undermined after HSLS lost at the previous elections many of the votes it had won in 1992.

Before becoming Foreign Minister, Milutinovic was Yugoslavia's Ambassador to Athens. He is a close friend of Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic - they both held posts in the Belgrade University student leaderships. Milutinovic was born in 1942 in Belgrade and majored in law. Before assuming his present post, he was: a Socialist Youth Alliance of Yugoslavia Presidency member, MP in the Federal Parliament Socio-Political Council, Parliamentary Foreign Policy Board member, Chairman of the (Belgrade municipality) Vracar Municipal League of Communists Committee, member of the Belgrade League of Communists Committee, Serbian Education Minister, member of the Serbian Executive Council (Government) and Director of the Serbian National Library. He adheres to Milosevic's policy and political style absolutely and unconditionally.

Both Belgrade and Zagreb, or more precisely, the media they control, have tried to minimize the importance of the meeting, proving that the other side is in greater need of Granic's visit. Mate Granic came to Belgrade with two good-will gestures: announcement of the revocation of the law virtually confiscating the property of Serbs who have fled Krajina and Tudjman's amnesty of 450 captured Krajina troops. If one bears in mind the U.N. Security Council Declaration on the violation of the human rights of Serbs in Croatia and the request that their status is considerably improved by 15 February, (including enabling the refugees' return home), it is clear that the Serbian hosts will insist on the Declaration's implementation as a pre-condition for normalizing relations with Zagreb. Zagreb, on the other hand, insists on eastern Slavonija's full reintegration and on the inter-state recognition of the AVNOJ (ex-Yugoslav) borders, by which the Prevlaka peninsula, on the Croatian-Montenegrin border, would be handed over to Croatia. Both sides are supported by international factors in their demands. Granic and his hosts did not reveal very much in their statements to the press after the talks. The chief conclusion that can be drawn is that talks were necessary, held in the spirit of Dayton and Paris and aimed at normalizing the Serbo-Croatian relations. What both regimes have in common is their tax-payers' difficult economic situation, and, in that context, the re-establishment of the necessary economic ties which will promote the economies. Now, with the war over, Tudjman, the Granic brothers, Milosevic and Milutinovic alike are aware that nationalist rhetorics will get them nowhere. For this reason, the Serbian politicians have cast aside their vows about holy Serbian lands and Dr. Mate Granic did not reiterate his condition to drive down the (Belgrade-Zagreb) highway to Belgrade, but remained true to his nickname and flew there.