The agreement was signed after months of negotiations between the local Serbs from the Danube Valley region and Zagreb. The final agreement has 14 points some which are a possibility to prolong the UN mandate for 12 months, the return of refugees, setting up of the police forces, the return of belongings that were illegally confiscated, the local elections...
True, no-one can claim that the implementation is not a difficult process and that all the items have been realised. The return of Croatian refugees to their homes is still unresolved. According to information presented during a short briefing at the UNTAES Headquarters of the Jordanian Battalion, located in the village of Djeletovci, there are currently around 30 thousand people living in the UNTAES-supervised region, among whom 96% are Serbian and 3.6% Croatian.
Diplomats and other distinguished guests gathered at the Yellow House to celebrate the anniversary of the agreement that "brought peace and the stability to Croatia and the region". During their tour Galbraith, Stoltenberg and the diplomats saw only the things they wanted to see. They rushed by bus through villages in which the rebuilding has begun. In the village of Nijemci, that has recently returned under the jurisdiction of the Croatian authorities, the delegation stopped to talk to a Serbian woman who owns the local inn, located exactly across the street from the destroyed Roman Catholic [Croatian] church of St. Catherine, and suddenly the woman, Mrs. Jovanka Jovanovic, became a "spokeswoman" for all Serbs. Although the Head of the Nijemci Administration, Ivica Klem, was standing right there he wasn't asked a single question.
While in Vukovar, the convoy stopped in front of the building which houses the office which issues Croatian documents. Approximately a hundred people were waiting in the line, and from the brief conversations, we found out that they were mostly people who left Tusilovic, Knin and Petrinja during the "Storm 95" operation. These Croatian documents are essential for them to return to their homes although it is uncertain when this will actually occur.
In Vukovar, they found accommodation in damaged houses, but they said that they didn't feel right there and wanted to go home. According to UNTAES information sources, approximately twenty thousand people of Serbian nationality applied for Croatian documents. The delegation discussed the implications of this with office administrators and with the people who submitted their applications. The number of Serbs from Vukovar who applied for the documents is very small and the majority of applicants are Serbs from other parts of Croatia.
The Jordanian and Belgian UNTAES Battalion celebrated the anniversary with a festive gathering. General Jaques Klein reminded the numerous guests of the fact that , so far, offices for issuing Croatian documents have been opened, [ethnically] mixed police forces have been established, the zone is demilitarised, the area has established communication with the rest of Croatia, and that for the Day of Dead the area was visited by more than 5,000 people from Croatia.
"Give peace a chance", said Klein in Croatian and he added that for the successful reintegration, co-operation on both sides is required. Thorvald Stoltenberg couldn't hide his happiness: "Today is like springtime, and a year ago it was winter. Same with the agreement. If someone asked me a year ago what I expected, I wouldn't say this much. I am pleased with the systematic approach to the implementation of the agreement." Vojislav Stanimirovic, president of the local Serbian government, was presented with the framed copy of the Erdut Agreement. Representatives of the Croatian Governments' office for relations with UNTAES were only rewarded with few good words. None of them, though, was given a chance to address the present journalists and diplomats. Perhaps because of the fear that they would speak about the implementation of the Erdut agreement with far less enthusiasm than the present diplomats.