Nacional has learned from diplomatic sources in Zagreb that in recent days, the president of HDZ, Ivo Sanader, and the American Ambassador to Croatia, Lawrence Rossin, met for the first time, after having absolutely no contact in the last three years. Nacional has learned that Rossin supports HDZ’s standpoint, however, he warned Sanader that this would still not be enough for the State Department to back a return to power by HDZ. Nacional has also learned that Rossin warned that America’s policy is to remain reserved towards HDZ until its leadership is cleared of all compromised politicians, such as Branimir Glavaš. Rossin also warned Sanader that the US finds all governments unwilling to fulfill its international commitments unacceptable, particularly concerning those commitments to extradite indicted war criminals to The Hague, to ensure the return of refugees and to return their property.

Though it was originally thought that the British side cancelled the upcoming meeting between the Croatian and British Prime Minister, Nacional has learned from diplomatic sources that in fact Račan broke off the meeting, out of fears of the looming war atmosphere and the Iraqi issue, when he should have used the opportunity to explain Croatia's position.Diplomatic sources have even claimed that Rossin advised Sanader to publicly support the government’s attempts to find and apprehend fugitive General Ante Gotovina and to accelerate the process of returning refugees their homes and properties. Without that, claimed the Ambassador, the relations between the State Department and HDZ cannot be expected to improve.

US diplomacy, it would appear, still takes account of the principle of its position and overall relations in Croatia, even in such a difficult situation in which all support, even that of HDZ, for the military intervention in Iraq, is precious. For the leading Croatian politicians, however, this is not believed to be the case. They have claimed that the war in Iraq has confirmed that the US is only considering its own interests.

Political Gaffs

The three leading Croatian politicians, President Stipe Mesić, Premier Ivica Račan and Parliamentary Speaker Zlatko Tomčić, due to a lack on understanding of the principles upon which foreign relations are based in the international community, and due to their own political penetration, have threatened the realization of strategic national interests. That is, they have attempted to use the rat in Iraq to collect political points on the domestic scene.

President Mesić, in a desire to outdo Premier Račan and to take the lead in interpreting Croatia’s standpoint on the Iraqi war, rushed to accuse the US and Great Britain without any real purpose for doing so. He called the action illegitimate, when even the fiercest opponents to the intervention did not call it so. Furthermore, many much larger and politically more important and serious countries and their leaders did not rush to explain their standpoints, many have made no explanation at all, considering that the situation is far from black and white as well as keeping the interests of their state in mind.

Instead of turning his television address to the nation into an advantage, President Mesić experienced a backlash: Premier Račan took advantage of his gaff in order to teach him a lesson in political conduct. He warned Mesić that his rhetoric is unacceptable and that it is not in Croatia’s interest to further increase tensions in the relations with the US, Great Britain, Spain and their allies. However, it is none other than Premier Račan who is to blame for the confusion which has arisen among the leading politicians. Prior to Mesić, he made a similar, if not much greater error.

Nacional has learned from diplomatic sources that despite the announced attack by allied forces against Iraq, the Foreign Office did not insist that Premier Račan’s upcoming visit to London be cancelled. However, considering that Premier Račan did not show much interest in meeting with Tony Blair in the atmosphere of a looming war, their meeting was cancelled at the last moment. This is assessed to be a great error on the part of Račan, considering that he could have taken advantage of the meeting with Blair to explain Croatia’s position and to build new bridges between Croatia and Great Britain. Particularly since Blair did not support George Bush because he had to or due to certain calculations, but out of the conviction that this would act to break the back of terrorism and sources of danger to peace and stability in the Middle East and in the world.

If Premier Racan feared that a visit to London would be poorly accepted in France or Germany, he was wrong: the current conflicts between London, Paris and Berlin are familial squabbles which will be ironed out, and the short end of the stick will only go to those countries who got involved unnecessarily.

London yet to ratify the SAA with Croatia

In political and diplomatic circles, it is thought that Račan feared that he would be put in an uncomfortable position and that the meeting with Blair would be a failure due to their differing positions on the Iraqi issue. No brave and decisive politician would ever take such a stance: he would instead muster up the courage to face differing positions and to explain Croatia’s position. This is very important as without the support of Great Britain, Spain, Portugal and Holland, there will be no accelerated admission of Croatia into the EU and the NATO pact. As is well known, London has still not ratified the Stabilization and Association Agreement, without which Croatia’s rapprochement process cannot even begin.

If all these errors by President Mesić and Premier Račan were not enough, then Parliamentary Speaker Zlatko Tomčić has added his own dose. With the help of SDP, Tomčić forced a parliamentary session to discuss the American intervention in Iraq, though it was clear that the debate would do nothing except foster anti-American hysteria. Despite this, Tomčić and Račan continued to insist that this session be held on 26 March, convinced that this would lead to a conflict between the two opposing factions in HDZ and that Sanader’s party would further compromise itself before the public. However, dominant figures in the Parliament for some time have been MPs Ljubo Ćesić Rojs, Anto Kovačević, Miroslav Rožić and Drago Krpina, which suggests that this time, they will again dominate and mistreat the public with their exhibitionist commentaries. It is not difficult to assume that this will be a new weight in the relations between Croatia and the US and their allies, and will only further complicate the already cooled relations between Zagreb and Washington and London.

Such conduct by Croatia’s leading politicians is completely not understandable, particularly when it is known that Ivica Račan’s government has already approved the US request to allow civil airplanes access to Croatia’s air space and permission to land and refuel at Croatian airports. It is therefore hypocritical to accuse the US for its intervention in Iraq while meanwhile providing logical support for the attack. Such inconsistencies and contradictions however, have their roots in the domestic political scene. While such conduct is still accepted and tolerated here, it is not on the international scene. For that reason, the most important members of Ivica Račan’s government cannot be considered to be reliable and consistent partners, and the credibility of this indecisive government is waning fast.

Račan’s conduct can be interpreted in only one way: as the inability to create a framework in which to work towards achieving the desired goals.

Initiative expected from other parties

Some of the coalition leaders have met in recent days with American and English diplomats, which is a positive sign. For the ruling coalition and for strategic state interests, it would be truly discouraging for the relations between the US and Croatia to be determined by the momentary anti-American mood prevailing in SDP, HSS, Libra or in the pro-American position of HDZ. Therefore, diplomatic circles in Zagreb are expecting the initiative to come from other parties, including HNS and LS to overcome the current problems between Zagreb and Washington. For state policies must not be determined by the ideologicalized left wing which the US continues to see as an imperialist force wanting to take over the world, the pressures of the right wing which cannot forgive the US for now standing behind their national and territorial pretensions in BiH or behind the reasonable pacifism of the citizens.

As Vaclav Havel warned in recent days, we must not forget that it was pacifism which laid the path of the crimes and terror of Adolf Hitler, Slobodan Milošević, Kim in Korea or Saddam Hussein. Pacifism, according to Havel, has no justification when it threatens to stand in the way of removing dictators, conquerors or criminals on time.

Those in Croatia criticizing the US must also not forget that the same method was used to break the criminal regime of Slobodan Milošević and it is a true question of when the war in BiH would have ended without the direct American military and political intervention, who would have ended the massacre on Kosovo and who would have prevented that war from becoming the source of a new region wide conflict in the Balkans. The European Union certain wouldn’t have, as its division on the issue was what allowed Milošević years to kill and terrorize unhindered for years in the former Yugoslavia. Furthermore, without direct American military intervention, it is difficult to believe that Operations Flash and Storm in Croatia would have been so successful.

With that, wise state leaders must keep in mind that the Democrats in the US have still not moved in on the Republicans and that President Bush is sure to win the next elections, meaning that the Republicans will be in office until 2008. Looking at it in the long-term, the protagonists and the supporters for the American intervention will continue to hold power in their countries for a long time, and the point of a conflict with the US is questionable. Particularly in cases where those relations have developed well in the past. Due to one hardened criminal, it is truly unreasonable to jeopardize an entire series of joint projects and actions. Therefore, instead of further increasing tensions, Zagreb should begin investing maximal efforts to work out the conflict with Washington and London and to return the balance.