Patriots and Godfathers

Even though the Krajina delegation proposed at the United Nations a "hard" resolution whose ultimate goal would be the recognition of Krajina as an independent state, which is unacceptable for both Croatia and the international community that stands behind the Vance plan, upon its return home, there was an announcement by the Serbian Democratic Party of Krajina waiting for them and it was signed by the president of its Executive committee, Milan Babic. Members of the delegation are accused of leaving for New York without the permission of the Assembly of the Republic of Serbian Krajina, and of "too easily getting into talks, at the negotiating table, about giving up part of the Serbian territory - handing it over to our enemies". Babic goes on to say that there is a struggle for power at the top of the Krajina institutions and that a military-police dictatorship has been imposed in some parts of it - all this puzzles friends and encourages enemies.

That Babic's opinion is not a isolated one was also indirectly confirmed by Mile Paspalj, the president of the Assembly of the Republic of Serbian Krajina, at a press conference upon his return from New York (it was said that Hadzic was absent because of an illness). He said that agreement was in sight. "Mr.Vance, Mr.Owen, Mr.Oakun and Mr.Anderson offered us the recognition of the Republic of Serbian Krajina but on condition that we give the 'pink zones'. We explained to them that the 'pink zones' are the ethnically purest Serbian regions and that any bargaining in that direction is out of the question". In any case, it is difficult to believe in such offers. Hadzic and the Krajina officials who support him are in a twofold unenviable position: on the one hand they have to negotiate, but on the other they are losing at the negotiations.

Even though they did get an official invitation from the cochairmen of the peace conference, they are aware of the fact that a long-term agreement represents a defeat. Namely, if it were to be agreed that the disputed areas in the Zadar hinterland be under UNPROFOR's control that would really be the first withdrawal on the part of Krajina under military and diplomatic pressure. Apart from that, from Beli Manastir (Baranja, sector East) to Knin, the already under-developed economy experienced a total collapse in the past two war years, There is a shortage of electricity, fuel, various foodstuffs... Practically no one is doing anything, people are literally surviving on the existential minimum, and since most of the municipalities in Lika and Dalmatia used to base their development on transport and tourism, the prospects are even gloomier. The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which is already well on its knees because of the economic sanctions, is less and less able to help itself - the idea about all Serbs living in one state, is, to all intents and purposes, being defended until the last Serb, but outside Serbia.

Hadzic was perhaps also partly aware of this when he asked UN secretary general Boutros Boutros Ghali not to indirectly punish Krajina with economic sanctions and to make it possible for it to open a border crossing at Beli Manastir. It is no wonder that smuggling systems branched out in Krajina and that some people acquired great wealth on account of other people's hardships - all this is known as war profiteering, and war profiteers are, how strange, mostly people close to the authorities.

In the midst of the escalated current political disputes, security bodies of the Serbian army have allegedly confiscated in Banija five million marks worth of smuggled goods. The president of the municipality of Petrinja said that "our smugglers sold cigarettes, but also arms to the Muslims in the Cazin Krajina (Nortwest Bosnia)". It seems that some of those involved in such dealings started being tried, with all this having been organized by the army, so that the justice minister of the Republic of Serbia Krajina, Vojin Susa, requested that court-martials in Banija be dissolved. The request was explained by formal and procedural reasons - the laws regulating their work have not been adopted, and it is also contrary to president Hadzic's decrees.

There is no doubt that everything is being bargained with in Krajina in the conditions of war-time communism. Theft, as something human, is by no means alien, there is also talk about organized groups which systematically emptied houses in parts of the Zadar hinterland. Those familiar with the state of affairs in Krajina say that very good money is made on the mafia games with oil, the epicenter of which is in Mirkovci (Slavonija), and as their Godfather of all Godfathers they mention Zeljko Raznjatovic Arkan, a member of parliament in one state and a special presidential advisor in another. The same sources say that Arkan has been closely cooperating with Hadzic ever since his first stay in western Slavonia in 1992. Later on, when Hadzic became what he is now, he gave Arkan, as a reward, he says, for his support in certain delicate situations, a special concession on the Krajina oil and some other goods in short supply. There is cynical speculation that Arkan, with his "Tigers", is once again engaged in Krajina, which they call "Arkansas", primarily in order to control his business interests in the newly- arisen dubious war-time circumstances. In any case, one can notice the nostalgia of the people in Krajina for the times of the "avowed national leaders" Babic and Martic. There was more or less everything at the time, Croatian armed forces were only a paper tiger, and the expansion, reinforced by the then Yugoslav People's Army, seemed limitless. Also, despite all the rumors that circulated, both Babic and Martic did have numerous benefits in Knin but they were "with their people". Unlike them, Hadzic mostly stays in his three-room apartment in Novi Sad, he is about to enroll in the third year of the Faculty of Economics (he finished two years in Osijek before the interrupted his studies) and he swims in the sea at Sveti Stefan. After the limited resumption of the war in Ravni Kotari and the feeling of being abandoned which it led to, Babic once again found himself in the center of attention - the man now claims that he knew what would happen and that he opposed this until Slobodan Milosevic, along with Hadzic, removed him from the political scene.

The explosion of political disputes in Krajina got large publicity thanks to the statements by Martic and Hadzic. The interior minister was the first to "draw" - in the news on Knin television he said that the chief of staff of the Serbian army of the Republic of Serbian Krajina, general Mile Novakovic, had ordered Arkan to leave Krajina with his units "because of interfering in politics and brutally treating the local population". The answer of the president's advisor (Arkan) was not to be long awaited - he said that he had been a member of the government since February 28th 1992 and that he had the right to interfere in politics, and he told Martic that Krajina is "not his own property so that he would have to be asked whether Serbian volunteers can come or not". Arkan said that he encountered a chaotic situation and desertion in Obrovac and that his people only established order but "with a firm hand". In any case, the mentioned general Novakovic neither confirmed nor denied Martic's statement. At the moment most of the main protagonists in the conflict are in Belgrade - Arkan, Babic, Hadzic, Paspalj... They want to present their dispute as strictly a matter of principle and to gain credibility with president Milosevic as the supreme arbitrator in all Serbian issues - he is to say who is bad, and who is good, although he is showing less and less will to do so. The elections in Krajina scheduled for March 30th are also not insignificant. The present authorities claim that conditions for holding elections do not exist because of the war circumstances, although it is assessed that the real reason for their postponement is their certain defeat. It is interesting that Babic's stream which insists on elections and denies the legitimacy of the present officials, bases its legitimacy on the elections held in Croatia in May 1990. In the meantime, Krajina found itself in a vacuum. It seems that Belgrade is slowly giving up on it, leaving it up to international mechanisms and the Vance plan. Hadzic, as the main exponent of this policy, has been brought in a position to bear the consequences - Babic's accusations on account of the League of Communists - Movement for Yugoslavia in fact affect Milosevic (for whom it is more or less all the same now) because of, it is claimed, having insisted on some kind of Yugoslavia, instead of openly saying that the goal of the two-year long war is to create a Serbia within "its natural and historical borders".

In a situation where most of the people of Krajina are afraid of fierce Croatian revanchism, and due to the feeling of being abandoned by Belgrade, his insistence on uncompromising statehood has a realistic and firm stronghold. However, it is encouraging that because of all this, each for their own reasons and additionally pressured from abroad, the authorities in Zagreb and the Serbs in Croatia have started negotiations.