Imitating Life

The self-proclaimed governments are ruling certain parts, some parts are being ruled by the military and the paramilitary formations, the local feudalists, but the common fact of life is poverty, desolation and hangover from the war binge. This war, where it is uncertain who will win in the long run, has brought despair to all the war consumed regions. The armies have been and gone destroying on the way all they have set out to destroy. The survivors have crawled out of the woods and continued with their lives. What else was there for them to do? The local authorities are fashioned on war time partisan autonomous regions (Slavonija, Baranja), whereas in other parts the already existing rule has changed shape (Kninska krajina); in certain regions the new rule has expanded to the conquered territories (Lika, Banija, Kordun) in the Dubrovnik region the combined civilian and military rule had been established.

Slavonija, Baranja and Western Srem were the scene of the fierce clashes, where the enormous sophisticated weaponry was involved. Its use was, by and large indiscriminate: there are witnesses to confirm the systematic destruction of civilian facilities with artillery, regardless of whether the resistance was offered or not. Almost all the villages between the Danube river from the north and the Vinkovci-Vukovar region from the west were either completely destroyed or ruined during the clashes of recent months. This area is now under the control of the Army, the local Serbian irregulars and the "volunteer" formations who were organized by certain political parties and organizations from Serbia. These irregulars were, according to the reports of the reservists, officers and the local population, taken up with the systematic looting of the newly conquered villages, and the loot transported to Belgrade by trucks. The capital has been showered with cheap stolen goods, and there were also some incidents of clashes between the volunteers and the Army. Certain officers are accusing "the volunteers" of war crimes and the massacre of the civilian population and the Belgrade military headquarters for allegedly failing to bring them to court. There are indications that certain groups, like the one led by Zeljko Raznatovic Arkan (a Belgrade criminal), are under the revered protection of various retired generals, the political parties of the same orientation, such as SK-PJ (the Communist Party - Movement for Yugoslavia).

When the war broke out, the Croatians retreated to the northwest into the Croatian inland, whereas the Serbs have started moving out over the Danube river to the south. Thus over 200 000 people have left the front, leaving the ethnically compact Slavonija inhabited by soldiers and corpses. Considering both the Serbs and the Croatians, we are here not faced simply with the issue of refugees; they have now become displaced persons in the sense of the international conventions, since there is little chance of them returning home. Their homes have been destroyed, their cattle slaughtered or stolen, along with all of their possessions. The persistent attempts of the newly elected government SAO Slavonija to by repeated mobilization (with open threats) bring the local population back - were by and large unsuccessful.

The military authorities are facing the insurmountable difficulties when trying to introduce some kind of a civilian government in the deserted villages. In the villages deserted by the Croatians, the Serbs have immediately accepted to come back to and have already started bickering over who will have the power. The absence of civilian population is severely hampering the return to normal life and is putting the Army into a very difficult position. The situation is somewhat easier in the villages with the majority Serbian population. The territorial defence is well organized, it is fighting alongside the Army and represents the village rule. The public safety is however the same everywhere. A man could easily get killed while nobody will be charged for it.

The administrative unit of Baranja (Slavonija, Croatia), for example, has started as early as September 5 to proclaim decrees concerning the sacking of all those "who have openly supported the Croatian regime". Their return to Baranja has been prohibited. Mass poverty does represent the necessary precondition for wartime communism: in Erdut (Slavonija, Croatia) the queues for bread, which reaches the town as six o'clock in the afternoon, are very long. The absence of livestock and poultry is prominent. The supplies are usually being organized by the army through the shops where the queues are the rule. The regions where the clashes were fierce were completely destroyed, the terrain and the crops were mined.

Considering the extent of cruelty , the unnecessary destruction of property and the looting, the return to normal life in the near future is inconceivable unless the present despicable rule persists. SAO Slavonija will govern the desolate region which used to be one of the richest in the Balkans.

The vital motorway Zagreb-Split has been blocked in over half a year, and thousands of employees whose livelihood depended on it are now left without work. The economy has been shattered. There is much tension between the chosen representatives of the new rule in Kninska krajina and the parallel paramilitary authority backed by the Serbian National Assembly from Knin. The moderate functionaries are under the extreme pressure and control of the local paramilitary formations and the police, whereas the public law and order are not first rate.

A long and hard winter is ahead, the presumed victory has been surprisingly prolonged while Vukovar, which has not yet been taken, has to go on living. The deserted roads and railways, the empty hotels, the desolate factories and land, the towns and villages in ruins, the dead, the crippled, the widows and orphans everywhere. At the same time, Dr. Babic (the President of Krajina) is going to the Hague to criticize Momir Bulatovic and is getting television coverage. What will the population of two SAO live on this winter? The operation Dubrovnik has managed to ransack the Dubrovnik region. The Montenegrin and the Herzegovine reservists and "volunteers" have scrupulously plundered the resplendent Dubrovnik Riviera, destroying the houses and orchards. There is hardly a house which was left intact.

One of the generals in the field says: "Let the ustashi get the full taste of war horror and their own downfall", indirectly supporting the looting, which he euphemistically calls "the small helping."

Dubrovnik, on the other hand, has for the past month been left without water, electricity and the telephone communications. The shooting is constantly going on, certain parts of the city have been cut off, and the curfew starts at nine. The old centre of the city has been left almost intact, whereas the shops are empty. The bread supplies are mostly regular, and until a few days ago chicken meat could be found in the market. The queues for milk and eggs (which cost up to 80 dinars in the black market) are long and slow. The same is with gas. There is no fish since fishing has been forbidden (and could prove to be lethal). Thirty eight cisterns and wells provide drinking water and are being helped by lorry cisterns from the springs in Rijeka. The sea water is used for washing. The city is now accommodating around 10 000 refugees, whose homes were demolished. The marines have started letting the help ships pass, as well as the ones transporting the refugees, but this is hardly enough.

Judging from the present success, the "liberated territories" are imitating life; the security and affluence have been replaced by "freedom" under the military grip and the "dignity" to feed on roots.