From: CP6uH@plains.NoDak.edu
Newsgroups: soc.culture.yugoslavia
Subject: Bosnia-Herzegovina ( VREME NDA 22 Jul 1992 )
Date: 22 Jul 92 19:19:36 GMT
Organization: University of North Dakota at Grand Forks


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     "Vreme" News Digest Agency                       No. 43, July 20, 1992
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    Bosnia-Herzegovina
    ------------------


                                Divide and Rule


           Croatia is  having an increasingly  hard time trying  to
                  hide its contribution to butchering in B&H

    Unlike the  Serbian President, Mr. Tudjman,  President of Croatia, never
    concealed the  fact that dividing  Bosnia-Herzegovina was his  long-term
    ambition.  Milosevic  has  always   been  more  sophisticated  verbally,
    repeating  that "the  destiny of  B&H  lies  in the  hands of  its three
    constitutional  nations". A  year ago,  Tudjman told  the London "Times"
    that   he   agreed   "with   Mr.   Milosevic   that   the   division  of
    Bosnia-Herzegovina  is the  best solution",  which resulted  in a prompt
    denial from Belgrade, stressing that  "Mr. Milosevic never said anything
    like that".

    However,  Bosnian  president  Alija   Izetbegovic,  after  meeting  with
    Milosevic and Tudjman  is Split last year, claimed  that the Serbian and
    the Croatian leaders presented him with ready made maps that divided B&H
    on an ethnic basis.

    What matters is the present state of affairs in Bosnia: a bloody war and
    aggression, directed by  Milosevic in cooperation with the  Army and his
    local  Serbian  henchmen,  as  well  as  the  readiness  of the Croatian
    leadership to obtain new territories. Herzeg-Bosnia - a state of Bosnian
    Croats - was proclaimed ten days ago  as a result of such aspirations on
    the part  of Croatia: just another  satellite state on the  territory of
    B&H. Arguments  and instruments used  to justify the  constitution of an
    "autonomous"  Croatian  region  in  B&H  are  almost  identical to those
    presented by  the Serbian side: armed  force and readiness to  use it in
    order to conquer territories.

    Long before the war in Bosnia  broke out, the Croatian President bluntly
    favored and  supported in arms  and politically the  faction of the  HDZ
    (Croatian  Democratic Union)  of B&H,  which never  bothered to hide its
    secessionism. A conflict ensued between  the "Bosnian unionists", led by
    the then HDZ President and B&H  Presidency member Stjepan Kljuic and the
    other  wing which  favored cantonization  (i.e. secession),  led by Mate
    Boban, Vice-President of the HDZ for  Bosnia. It was kept a party secret
    until this year's HDZ Party  Congress, when Kljuic resigned, leaving the
    political initiative to  Boban. It is beyond any  doubt that Tudjman was
    behind Kljuic's resignation. Whenever he  thought that the policy of the
    Bosnian HDZ leadership was in  collision with his "one-hundred-year old"
    dribble  about the  division of  Bosnia, he  would find  a way to secure
    adequate support from "the Croatian  people" in B&H by making "personnel
    changes".

    That is exactly what he did at  the referendum in March, when nearly 70%
    of Croats  voted for a  sovereign, unified and  open B&H ,  i.e. against
    cantonization and ethnic fragmentation. However,  the war broke out only
    a month later. Tudjman and Milosevic knew  that there can be no division
    of B&H without war. That is why the Bosnian war suited Tudjman as well.

    Croats  in  Bosnia-Herzegovina  were  more  prepared  for  war  than the
    Muslims. The HVO (Croatian Defense Council) armed the Bosnian Croats and
    established  an complete  army infrastructure.  Mate Boban  led the HVO,
    blessed by the  Croatian leadership. He appointed loyal  people in every
    town and county.  Together with the B&H Territorial  Defense (TD) units,
    the HVO  forces were, in the  eyes of the public,  the strongest defense
    against the Serbian and the Montenegrin forces. However, the HVO limited
    its  operations to  what Boban  and Tudjman  considered "Croatian land".
    Last week, "The New York Times"  published reportedly true news that the
    HVO in  Herzegovina stopped a huge  arms convoy addressed to  the B&H TD
    units. Boban allegedly  conditioned the release of the  convoy by making
    the  B&H authorities  ask for  Croatia's help  arms. Reliable sources in
    Sarajevo claim that Boban and Radovan  Karadzic meat on a regular basis.
    On the occasion  of Lord Carrington's recent stay  in Sarajevo, the city
    authorities  thwarted  Boban's  meeting  with  Karadzic.  However,  in a
    Croatian village near Sarajevo Boban  met with Momcilo Manic, Karadzic's
    Minister of Justice.  It is said that they  discussed helping each other
    to constitute the Croatian and the Serbian state in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

    The world is showing reservations towards Tudjman after the proclamation
    of  Herzeg-Bosnia   as  an  independent  state   as  witness  his  total
    marginalization in Helsinki, when he was not given a chance to meet with
    American  President  George  Bush.  The  B&H  leadership  says  that Mr.
    Izetbegovic only has to ask for it, and the Security Council will punish
    Croatia and its President drastically.
                                                                 Senad Avdic


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     "Vreme" News Digest Agency                       No. 43, July 20, 1992
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