by Marinko CULIC
The imaginary official, if he said something like that, would immediately become the target of impassioned condemnations by all the political institutions and parties in Croatia, which would not hesitate to unite in a single front ranging from the left to the extreme right. But, the same reaction was conspicuously lacking after Mato Arlovic and Ivica Racan, commenting recently on the unofficial information that Serbs now constitute only slightly more than 4 percent of population of Croatia, calmly concluded that that was an expected consequence of the war that should not be “decried” since “those who started the war had to count on exodus”.
Such a short sentence, with such a long tail of wrong assumptions! First, Arlovic takes for a Biblical fact that greater Serbian plans about settlement of Kosovo and other parts of Serbia are the only culprit for the Serb exodus (Racan is somewhat more cautious and says that greater Serbian planners “bear most responsibility”). He dismisses transcripts [of conversations in Tudman’s cabinet] that among other indicate Croat assistance in the endeavor, claiming that the transcripts were produced later.
He said that much despite the fact that less than a month ago Novi List revealed existence of transcripts indicating that such plans predate the operation Storm, and despite some even more obscure and totally public testimony (for example, when in May 1995 Tudman said while decorating wartime executioner Sinisa Rimac: “Keep doing what you’ve done so far”!)
Secondly, even if we accept that only the greater Serbian policies are responsible for the war in Croatia, who gives Arlovic the right to acquit the leaders by redirecting their guilt at about 400,000 Serbs who have left Croatia since 1991?! Let me be clear, yours truly advocates wider interpretation of responsibility (unlike guilt) and does not believe that Krajina Serbs are innocent victims of the terror of Babic, Martic, Hadzic and various Slobo’s henchmen.
But, in that case the majority nation also bears some responsibility. After all, it elected authorities that were not much better than those in Krajina (slight mitigating circumstance is that the authorities in Zagreb enjoyed international recognition, while those in Knin could never hope to get such recognition?!)
Finally, no one blames Racan and Arlovic (although we could discuss shared responsibility) for the exodus of Serbs from Croatia (which makes it unclear why they are so defensive). But no one has given them the right to take that situation as something lasting and base minority rights legislation on that situation. That is clearly indicated by article 33 of the Constitution, which specifies that the departure of Serbs or anyone else can be treated only as a temporary state.
Namely, article 33 states that “every citizen of the Republic of Croatia has the right to leave the territory of the state at any time (!) and live temporarily or permanently abroad, and to return at any time (!) to the homeland”. Arlovic is definitely aware of that, if for no other reason than because the most recent version of the Constitution says in the introduction that its “cleansed” text was “firmed up” at a session of the parliamentary committee for the Constitution, Rules of Conduct and Political System. And Arlovic is the head of that committee.
Now Arlovic, the whole current government and the media that favor them keep pointing out that the most recent population census was conducted based on the UN recommendation that those citizens who have spend more than a ear outside of the country not be included in the population of the country. Fine. But, let them then publicly explain since when recommendations from abroad (just consider, ordinary recommendations, not a more important document!) are more important than the Constitution of Croatia. And the gentlemen from the right should be invited to explain whether their election motto that only God is above the Croatian Parliament is null and void.
The right ignored a lot in this story. They started foaming at the mouth when Djukic said the stupidity about four percent of Serbs as a proof that genocide against Serbs had been conducted, just like during WWII in NDH [Independent Stat of Croatia, pro-Nazi Croatian puppet state in WWII], but it was immediately obvious that this was a reflexive reaction. Now Djukic’s genocidal jeremiads appear as a wonderful confirmation of their achievement that surpasses that of Ustashe, since, as Tomislav Mercep said, “they did not finish their job”.
This should be taken seriously. Namely, given that Yugoslavia has just given up Milosevic’s fake model of civic society and started recognizing minority rights, while more than 50 percent of refugees have already returned to Bosnia-Hercegovina, it can be concluded that Croatia is perhaps the only country in which some extremist ethnic models from the past can be resurrected. An indication of that is the data – unprecedented, not recorded even during the NDH! – that now threateningly pulses as the heart of possible refascization of Croatia, that ethnic Croats are today more than 93 percent of the population of Croatia (Puhovski in Dnevnik from Novi Sad).
That is a higher proportion that was initially guessed (somewhat less than 90 percent), and would still be comparable to the most ethnically homogeneous states in Europe (for example Italy, Poland, and even France with very active immigration flows). The problem is, however, that none of those countries (not even France, with the recent rise of Le Pen) has such a well organized and influential political management “for pure Croatia”.
That management has taken roots during the previous authorities, but is doing very well even under the current government, which means that it is so resilient and vital that it could become a favorite, even idol, of the awakened nationalist right in Europe. That is that much more ironic since the main condition set by Europe for the international recognition of independence was precisely an enactment of democratic minority rights legislation (which was done, but Tudman suspended the law after the Storm and now after a lot of complication and recrimination a new one is being written).
Therefore, Croatia, to make it clear, earned international recognition of its independence because of the Serbs! But now it is going back to soiled nappies because it thinks that it will have an easier time without Serbs, or at least that it would buy peace from the blackmailing and raging Croat right. What a childish illusion! Since 1995 we’ve had plenty of evidence that both are naive and expensive - the emptied “underbelly of Croatia” is practically dying – self-delusions.