Elections Agreement

The Ministers of Foreign Affairs of FR Yugoslavia and Croatia, Milan Milutinovic and Ph.D. Mate Granic, signed six state agreements on September 15, in Belgrade — agreements on border crossings, on border traffic, on social insurance, on legal aid, and on railway and highway traffic. According to custom, everything was assessed as " very constructive", and as "a big step" of "utmost significance".

These agreements are the result of international pressures, but also much more than that. The regimes in Belgrade and Zagreb wish to clearly demonstrate that without them, such as they are, no significant problem in the region can be solved, while they willingly offer help to each other in their respective domestic political scenes.

That is why there is no post-war elections in either Serbia or Croatia without diplomatic "breakthroughs". Prior to last year’s federal elections in FR Yugoslavia, a bilateral agreement between the two states had been reached. Prior to presidential, local and District Council of Parliament elections in Croatia in April of this year, Milutinovic came to Zagreb promising dual citizenship to Serbs in East Slavonia and calling on them not to leave Croatia. Finally the elections in Serbia have arrived, and thus we find Ph.D. Granic, as expected, occupying a Louis XIV armchair in Beli Dvor on Belgrade’s Dedinje...

Still, this is no time for cynicism: every improvement in relations between states and peoples that until yesterday were engaged in bloody feuds against each other should be welcomed with open arms.

Ph.D. Ganic announced the continuation of talks on the issuing of visas by both regimes, on establishing borders, on economic issues, and on commercial and financial cooperation. He also announced a meeting between representatives of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs which will be devoted to the fight against drug trafficking and terrorism.

However, what the two ministers agreed on is of less significance than what they did not manage to agree on. Top of that list is the issue of unwavering regulation of the right of refugees to return to their homes, and their right to their property. It is not clear what the adoption in principle of the tabled proposal "to ease the load of government institutions and to support the self-initiative of people in resolving property questions by adopting a more flexible approach" means "within the continuation of the work of the state’s committees in implementing paragraph 7 of the Agreement on Normalization, as far as citizens’ property is concerned". There are two possibilities: that these people, above all refugees, will be left to continue to file endless, costly lawsuits, but also that their property has been left out, after all, in the state inheritance of masses of people subject to secession.

Then, even though the Agreement on Social Security in principle allows refugees in FR Yugoslavia to receive Croatian pensions, it cannot be implemented because there is no currency exchange between the two states. The inflexibility of both regimes on the issue of visa restrictions still continues, and it is highly unlikely that it will get any better soon, simply because both states are making considerable money from issuing restricted visas.

The ministers eschewed the whole question of Prevlaka, just as Siroki Brijeg never came up as a possible border-crossing point between the two states. Nor is there agreement regarding the "southern air corridor". The President of the People’s Party, Ph.D. Novak Kilibarda concludes that the eschewing of such issues is one more indication that the regimes in Zagreb and Belgrade are supporting each other. Croatia is well aware that Prevlaka is part of Croatia, he states, so that there is no reason to further compromise Slobodan Milosevic’s protege Momir Bulatovic in his fight for power in the upcoming elections in Montenegro ("It is not in Croatian hands, nor has it stopped being ours"). Zagreb’s Vjesnik writes about a "significant victory for Croatian diplomacy", citing that "for the first time, Serbian diplomacy is acknowledging Croatians in FR Yugoslavia as a distinct minority". However, all indications of how the status of the Croatian distinct minority could be regulated, have been left unmentioned.

While here, Milutinovic stated proudly that Agreements on Border Crossings and Border Traffic "represent a big step toward the realization of the concept of an open border" toward which Belgrade is working. But even he had to admit that "that is no substituted for dual citizenship", which means that Belgrade’s initiative to resolve this issue with a bilateral agreement had fallen through. However, he did announce that FR Yugoslavia "will allow, in due time, all Serbs and Montenegrins in Croatia, as well as in other republics of former Yugoslavia, to get Yugoslav citizenships". Although the SPS elections slogan, "Vote for Serbia!", is sounding better still in the last week before election day in Serbia, more than anything else, it signifies acceptance of the Croatian proposal that each state resolve the issue of dual citizenship within its own legal system.

In any case, real agreement between FR Yugoslavia and Croatia is yet to happen. The main thing is for this process not to become too gradual and long-term for it to become maningless for all those people whom it concerns, and who are expecting so much from it.