Berlin Wall's Kid Brother

It all started when the Slovenian policemen, standing in rain next to proudly hoisted flags, began to check travelers' identity cards, search their cars and collect taxes. Despite the constant babbling about sovereignty, Slovenians and Croatians were surprised to actually see ramps and barriers emerging along their border line. When the Slovenian dredge machines started digging, the Croatian side was so shocked that it simply borrowed its neighbours' plans, copied them and then installed its own observation posts. The absolute disorder on both sides led to grotesque situations, dividing people and making their lives a mess, on the territory where they peacefully lived together for centuries. Thus the political motives have literally overnight marked a new border on the Kupa river. The Berlin wall's "kid brother" was born. Outlining the formal borders was not done in a regular way, so unnecessary problems emerged. For example, at the border crossing near Bregana (on the Ljubljana-Zagreb highway) you may wait for as long (if not even longer) as at Sentilj or Sezana crossing (main crossings at Slovenian-Italian border). So the ingenious planners of the new borders have thrown themselves into constructing the adequate (meaning bulky) border infrastructure. As if, in spite of destroyed bridges, devastated roads and barricades (even if the war were over tomorrow), convoys of tourists and tradesmen from the West would rush to Yugoslavia through Slovenia and back. The lorry drivers from Bulgaria, Turkey, Iran... will certainly remember how their colleagues were killed on the battlefields in Slovenia and Yugoslavia. The state of the "Brotherhood and Unity" highway (Skoplje-Beograd-Zagreb-Ljubljana) is the best indicator of what has, in these parts, left not only of the mentioned syntagm but of trade and tourism as well. What else then but the pure spite does the construction of the pompous border mean? When the main landmarks were already placed, the authorities closed their eyes before the problems of the people who elected them. The Slovenians whose houses are on the Croatian territory found themselves in a foreign country: they became citizens of Croatia, which means that finding a job in their homeland becomes a serious problem; education and scholarships for their children suddenly became an issue; the "sovereign media" have no time for additional native tongue programmes, not to mention the lack of national minority protection. The Slovenians working in Croatia and the Croatians working in Slovenia will have to get work permits, which will by no means reduce the waiting time at the border crossings or simplify the bureaucratic procedure. After a month at work, the Slovenian customs officers are still not qualified enough to deal with customs declarations, since they counted in vain on the help of the Federal Customs Bureau (which has, in the meantime, been thinking on how to establish the customs offices right behind the front line and the positions held by the Army). From the professional point of view, the Slovenian customs officers (who are still wearing the Federal Customs uniforms) are doing simple paper work, but they know very well how to extort the tax money. They even taxed funeral wreaths (which cost more than 1.200 tolars) bought in Croatia and "smuggled" by the Slovenians from Croatia. Since the work of exchange offices has not been regulated yet, the trade exchange between the two neighbouring countries has stopped completely. The families whose members have remained in different states found themselves in legal and financial chaos. A father, presently the Croatian citizen, has bought his son, presently the citizen of Slovenia, a car. The result: he cannot, as a foreigner, drive his son's car, and if he should decide to become its owner, he would once again have to pay all the taxes, but this time - to the state of Slovenia. There are thousands of such examples. "This border is the tragedy of my life", said a prominent Slovenian historian and an experienced diplomat. "All my life I have lived by the river Kupa and I have never favoured one nation as opposed to another". Many feel the same. The misinterpretation of sovereignty has severely affected the destiny of many nations. It is obvious that the Balkans did not draw a lesson out of it. The European countries are opening up their borders, finding out the ways to encourage competition, eliminating physical, technical and legal barriers separating them from their neighbours... Next to the national flags flutter the flags of the European Community. Only a few kilometres away, South of Sentilj, the new barriers of the planners of a misunderstood sovereignty are springing up one by one. "Having the border on the Kupa river was the dream of many Slovenians, since that way we would get rid of the 'Southerners' and get closer to the West, where, many of us think, we belong. Now, we are faced with the fact that the border to the north and Europe will not be any more open than it always has been and that, on top of that, we have a border to the south. Thus, we have finally come to realize that we are constrained. The politicians have done their bit: on each border we will be harassed by the police and the customs officers; we will be paying duties, counting our tolars, dinars and marks.... we will be enduring ordeals because of some documents issued by the red tape. In case we want to pay in for something merely a hundred kilometers away, we will be forced to queue and fill in forms in at least five copies, we will have to pay a commission fee and lose money in the exchange offices, and to finally have to put up with the possibility of fraud from our own banks (because of the liquidity)", the financial commentator of "Mladina" used to give an ominous prediction concerning the future of the Slovene state. The ones who are in the position to change this bleak predicament, will not understand his cynicism. The Slovenians are the people who rarely travel, who watch their pennies when using the phone and who are happy enough living only in "their homeland". They have no difficulty accepting the new borders since being constrained as they are at present they "feel at home". To them the borders of their national state are the borders of their whole world.