Blood and Tears

This statement is illustrative of the deeply rooted conception of paramilitary formations as the groups of uncompromising fighters for their own nation who do not shun anything. They say about themselves that They are always there where it is most difficult, and that it was them who carried out the key war operations - Captain Dragan in Krajina in 1991, Mile Dedakovic nicknamed Hawk and the HOS members in Vukovar, Arkan and the "Tigers" in Northern Bosnia, Blaz Kraljevic in Western Herzegovina, Juka Prazina in Sarajevo... They are allowed everything - from looting to the cruelest war crimes - but not to be a competition to the current authorities of the states for whose account they are fighting. Should they happen to break that only taboo they get drilled with bullets on a check point as was Blaz Kraljevic, get killed under dubious circumstances as Djordje Blazevic Giska, or tread the road from a national hero to a captive - Mile Dedakovic.

"I'm a member of the HOS because I want to stay alive," a blond eighteen year old youth explained in Osijek in 1991. "Nobody has forced us to join the army, all of us are volunteers. I know I won't be left alone if I am wounded. I know I won't get shot in the back...That's most important," he added. Having activated his "Tigers" in Krajina after the clashes there renewed this year, Zeljko Raznatovic Arkan said about the same thing regarding the relations among his fighters. A high level of solidarity in these formations, established on a voluntary basis, can be practically taken as a rule. The rule is also their verbal readiness to die and the preoccupation with grand goals, namely, radicalism. Parasoldiers consider the regular armies to be weak, their officers incompetent, they accuse the reservists of treason and fleeing, while they see themselves as elitist soldiers, though guys who are ready to go until the end. They stress that they fight exclusively by conviction, that they are no the nation's rampart although they did not have to be there, that they are the only ones who know on a basis of their own spilt blood, and that of the others. what this is all about. Volunteers-parasoldiers are also embittered - the fruits of their pain are being used by some "heroes" of sorts, lying on the cushions. Therefore, they believe that they enjoy the rights which those who have not been with them cannot possibly have. "If after everything, Gospic, Lipik and Vukovar, I don't have the right to settle down, then I don't need the state either," said a volunteer who "liberated" an entire trailer of freezers, washing-machines and other home appliances in Western Slavonia. He was not interested whether the gains came from Serb or Croat households - he only said without emotion that he had no idea that the area was so rich.

The lines above indicate that the parasoldiers see themselves as they truly are. Their first military promotion in Croatia in 1991 speaks much more about them. If it is assumed that the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) was the only legal armed forces at the time, even though it belonged to the state on its death bed, it can then be easily established, if it is viewed from this angle, that war was started and fought by the paramilitary formations. On the Serb side, those were the militiamen of Mile Martic (fatigues, automatic weapons, official cars) and the ad hoc formed volunteer associations of the "territorial defense" (army green uniforms, semi-automatic weapons, buses), followed by the reinforcement from Serbia in form of the "White Eagles", the "Serbian Chetnick Movement", etc... The Croat side was armed by the Croat Democratic Union (HDZ) activists (mostly in civilian clothes), the active and reserve contingent of the Interior Ministry (MUP) and the Croatian National Guard (ZNG) (an endless multitude of uniforms and limitless variety of infantry arms) and the HOS (their favorite uniforms seem to be black). A stack of "military free lancers" with various appearances can be found on both sides.

With all of them together, the war approximately took the following course. One of the smaller Serb units, voluntary or paramilitary, would ambush a MUP patrol, or open mortar fire on some Croat village with a police station in it. Then, those attacked would receive reinforcement, embodied in uniformed and armed men, called "Croatian special units." Endless shooting would ensue all until the JNA tanks appeared and set up a "buffer zone." In such cases, the Croat side would withdraw almost by rule, but few days later a similar event would take place several kilometers away. For mutual benefit, both sides carried out their actions clumsily, to put it mildly. Self-styled local commanders, who did not recognize each other, sprang up like mushrooms after the rain. Thus, upon his arrival in Knin, Captain Dragan was forced to state that he had arrived to "install some order." The only way he was able to do that was by organizing his own efficient volunteer unit. His actions - first in Ljubovo (penetrating the JNA buffer zone, firing twenty-odd mortar shells on the penitentiary building where the members of MUP were stationed and withdrawing into safety behind the tanks), and, subsequently, in Glina (again the same trick with a "buffer zone" in the Glina park, approach to the police station and its take-over) crowned him with glory of an "authentic" war genius.

The "regular" armies of the local Serbs and Croats, as well as their paramilitary formations were ready when the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina broke out. There was no warming up such as the one in Croatia. The Croatian Armed Forces (HOS) proved to be a perfect bait for the mobilization of Muslims in the Croatian Herzegovina, as the HOS recognized the Headquarters of the Bosnian Army in Sarajevo, only to later have the Muslims disarmed of put under the control of the HVO, by means of a cunning game. In Mostar, the members of the HOS had what could not even think about in Croatia: a private concentration camp Dretelj. Serb paramilitary units made their mark all the way from Bijeljina (the slaughter of the non-Serb population), and Brcko (the blowing up the bridge with about 30 people on it) to the abduction of the Muslims who are the citizens of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in Sjeverin and Strbci. After some time, the Muslims took the other two constituent peoples as a model - an atomic shelter in Celebici under the command of Hasan Delic as one of the most dreadful Bosnian camps.

All in all, neither the politicians nor the soldiers of the warring sides can do without paramilitary formations, regardless of everything involved. Higher national interests are at stake. Blood and tears may run.