Victory as an Illusion

Do you have any comments on the election results and party scene in Croatia two months on?

The elections had no winner, because the manner in which HDZ (the Croatian Democratic Alliance) won was not a victory but an illusion, primarily with regard to itself and its own power. The biggest loser in these elections was Savka Dabcevic-Kucar (Croatian People's Party); her star is on its way out. The party to most help Tudjman win the elections was Paragin's party, and Paragin himself with his fascist appearances. Even though I don't think his party has a fascist policy. He is against the war in Bosnia and is working for a democratic solution to the problems. So, they are all democrats until they get into power. A relative winner in the Elections is the Croatian Socio-Liberal Party of Drazen Budisa, although it is absurd for a party to be satisfied with being the second largest in Croatia and to have only 10 percent representation in parliament. This is ludicrous.

What should be the next steps in establishing coexistence between Croats and Serbs in Croatia and a normalization of the situation?

Unfortunately, there are no longer conditions for the establishment of coexistence because so much hatred has been aroused and the media are constant generators of this hatred. There can be no talks until Milosevic's group is put out of government in Serbia. The departure of Milosevic and his team will certainly mean the departure of other persons from the political scene in the Yugoslav territories. I think that Yugoslavia as a state is definitely dead and that this is good for it and the people who lived in it. The preconditions for normalization of good neighborly relations are now being created. If we can live as good neighbors, this is already a great deal.

Only when the war in the area of the former Yugoslavia stops, when overheated emotions and passions are cooled down a bit, will it be possible to talk of coexistence on new premises. Because of the experiences of this war and hatred, there will be no conditions for this for the next ten years or so.

Do you believe in the possibility of creating some kind of economic community of sovereign states of the former Yugoslavia?

An economic community will come about itself when we begin to trade. Most probably the first thing will be bilateral agreements, and after that the whole region which has comparative commerce and industry will begin to cooperate. Relations must be reconstructed between us, without war. We didn't need this war with all its suffering, social degradation, and all the troubles we now have. If Markovic had succeeded in his economic reforms, I won't speak of the political dimensions of his project, all would be very different now. The fact that he is called an Ustasha in Serbia and a traitor in Croatia confirms that he was doing a good job.

Could the war have been avoided if the government in Croatia had been more flexible, if it had insisted on talks with Serb representatives in Croatia?

It was not possible to talk to the official Serbia. One of the mistakes of the Croatian regime was that it didn't ask to talk to those Serbs it could have talked to. However, in the overheated atmosphere and general identification - all Croats on one side, all Serbs on the other - unfortunately things could not have turned out any other way. There were those of us who tried to channel it all a little differently, but there were no historical conditions for this.

How to you see the development of events in Bosnia and Hercegovina? Will it be cantonized or not - what solution do you see?

There is no cantonization of Bosnia, there is only constant war. Every attempt to cantonize it is further pouring oil on the fire and this has been understood in the EEC and UN. Cantonization is the agreement between Tudjman and Milosevic in Karadjordjeva which they just had to put into action.

Europe has set in motion a killing mechanism; it will crush everything in its way and whoever doesn't fit into its game will be destroyed. These processes are slow, but sure. It would be better for Serbia to fit into the European and international mechanism than to end up under the wheels of history.