International Protectorate is the Solution

"The whole problem, of course, is the division of Bosnia. It is very likely that there exists some kind of arrangement, or at least a tacit agreement, between the three national parties to go through with this dirty job, since a multinational and a multiconfessional state makes no sense in times when all the other republics of former Yugoslavia are founded on a national principle. Such a state simply wouldn't fit in. This war is waged over the frontiers of the future Yugoslavia".

This is how Dr. Grebo, professor at the Faculty of Law in Sarajevo, comments on the latest events in B&H. The telephone conversation was interrupted by news of renewed clashes in the Bosnian capital after a short-lived truce, that thanks to an agreement between Serbian and Moslem extremists the eight men who shot with snipers from the "Holiday Inn" at the crowd were released, that fighting was spreading in Zvornik...

Mr. Grebo stressed that Serbs were not being slaughtered in Sarajevo, but that they were merely in the same boat as everyone else. He warned that the appeal to the citizens of Serbia to protect officers' families, allegedly threatened by massacre, could easily turn into a call for lynch. "Such statements are inhumane and sound even more hypocritical after Karadzic fled to Pale where he is safe, protected by guns, leaving the Serbs in Sarajevo in the lurch", he said.

When asked to analyze the events in B&H within the context of the past months' events in Yugoslavia, professor Grebo said that the creation of chaos in Sarajevo was directly connected with April 6, i.e. the decision of the EC and the USA to recognize B&H. According to him, the ambitions of the Serbian side were best described by Mr. Maksic, the federal Deputy Foreign Minister, who had said that the recognition was premature, and that the international community should have waited for the national states to assume their full shape. On the other hand, Mr. Izetbegovic wanted to ensure the international recognition of B&H within its present borders, thus avoiding the formation of three national cantons in the republic. The fact that both Serbia and Croatia are displeased about the presence of General Nambiar, the UNPROFOR Commander, and his units in B&H, should not be overlooked.

Professor Grebo explained the conflicts in Bosanski Brod, Bijeljina, Zvornik and Visegrad, by their proximity to the Serbian border. He thought that they were provoked on the eve of the planned annexation of these territories to the future Yugoslavia. "The river Drina is the trouble spot", there were no serious conflicts in the usually troublesome Eastern Herzegovina, nor in Banja Luka and Bosanska Krajina. They were concentrated in regions close to the Serbian border (Mr. Grebo talked to VREME on April 9, 1992). Sarajevo became the center of the crisis because of the presence of government institutions, however, Mr. Grebo admitted that he didn't expect a civil war in the very capital. "I rather thought that we would share the destiny of Dubrovnik and that Sarajevo would be held under siege".

Listing other causes of the conflict in B&H, Mr. Grebo mentioned the presence of Paraga's units in Western Herzegovina, and the fact that the authorities in the republic either turned a blind eye to their presence, or reacted very timidly. That, of course, does not approve Arkan's (the leader of the so-called Serbian Tigers -volunteer units) presence in Bosnia...

The Army, as Mr. Grebo sees it, is acting exactly in the same way as it did in Croatia. It was always late, allegedly being neutral, allegedly creating a buffer-zone, but in actual fact legalizing dual authority - of SDS (Karadzic's Serbian Democratic Party), along with the central authority. Until now, the Serbs had, at least theoretically, their representatives within the legal power structure in B&H, however, the process of establishing their own separate authority has been completed in the past few days. Karadzic is issuing orders from Pale. The Serbian representatives in the Presidency of B&H, Biljana Plavsic and Nikola Koljevic, have resigned (at the moment when the Presidency took power from the Parliament and when Stjepan Kljuic, the former leader of HDZ /Croatian Democratic Union/ for Bosnia reappeared on the political scene, this time in battle-fatigues); the Serbian Ministers withdrew from the Government, the self-proclaimed Serbian Republic of B&H formed its ethnically homogeneous police...

What will happen next in Bosnia and Herzegovina? According to Mr. Grebo, there can be no agreement between the leading political factors in B&H. It is also very unlikely that new elections will be held. The only possible solution is the establishment of an international protectorate over Bosnia and Herzegovina. There is no doubt that international factors will have more influence on the crisis in B&H than local ones. The republic authorities have practically no control over the present situation, and Milosevic and Tudjman have less influence than they think, said Dr. Grebo.