Serbs in Croatia Expected to OK Serb Unity Plan

Serbs from the rugged Krajina frontier concluded a referendum Sunday that is expected to give overwhelming approval to unification with other Serbs, a move toward creating a Greater Serbia in much of the former Yugoslav federation.

As military vehicles blared the Serbian anthem, “March to Drina,” through the streets of this Croatian region, voters flocked to the polls for the referendum on unification with Serbs in Bosnia-Herzegovina and “other Serbian countries.” That wording was a clear reference to nationalist dreams of creating a single Serbian state spanning the current Yugoslavia and parts of Bosnia and Croatia.

The move is viewed as a distinct provocation to Croatia, which has lost nearly a third of its territory to Serbian occupation in Krajina and other regions, and a distraction for Serbian leaders in Belgrade who already have their hands full negotiating a resolution to the crisis in neighboring Bosnia-Herzegovina.

But the estimated 400,000 Serbs who have declared an independent republic in the Krajina region are determined not to be left out of the peace negotiations. They fear that the leaders in Belgrade will abandon the Krajina demands for independence in exchange for a chance to reach agreement with Croatia over the division of Bosnia into ethnic enclaves.

Leaders of the self-styled Republic of Serbian Krajina, headquartered in Knin, have pledged to resign if more than 75% of the voters do not endorse the referendum in the two-day balloting, which began Saturday morning. Voters, exhausted by the strain of international sanctions and the continuing low-grade war with Croatia, appeared overwhelmingly inclined to approve the measure in what most see as an alternative to more fighting.

“There’s too much evil here,” said Milan Kanezevic, a sanitary engineer overseeing one polling station. “Too much has happened. And if we count on one side all the evil that has happened and on the other side what we are hoping for, then we have to go with hope. Because everything that was before is too ugly.”

The United Nations and Croatian officials are trying to play down the vote, a clear irritation at a time when peace talks are under way to stave off a reawakening of the Serbo-Croatian war that followed rebellion in Krajina in 1991.

“It’s a criminal act, according to Croatian law, and it cannot be recognized,” Croatian presidential spokeswoman Vesna Skare-Ozbolt said of the referendum.

Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic had tried to discourage both the Krajina vote and a similar referendum overwhelmingly approved by Bosnian Serbs in May. Even the Bosnian Serbs, taking their cue from Belgrade, have hinted they would prefer to delay official unification until after the latest round of talks in Geneva.

But Krajina Serbs, feeling increasingly estranged from their Belgrade patrons, feel they have nothing to lose by joining with their ethnic kin in Bosnia.

Many displayed undisguised glee in provoking both Zagreb and Belgrade, particularly after the recent talks between Milosevic and Croatian President Franjo Tudjman in which they fear that Milosevic offered to ignore Krajina in exchange for a deal on Bosnia.

“Milosevic and Tudjman can talk about nice weather, about nice women, about football, but not about the people of Krajina,” said Boro Martinovic, an adviser to the Krajina government.

The Krajina Serbs have scheduled a meeting of their “parliament” Wednesday to consider the results of the referendum, which covers not only the Krajina territory of western and southern Croatia but the western Slavonia region on the border with Serbia as well.

Krajina and Bosnian Serb parliaments had originally hoped to announce the new joint state by month’s end. But Bosnian Serb leaders have recently advised going slow on the unification, and Djordje Biyegovic, prime minister of the Republic of Serbian Krajina, said the two regions might pursue economic integration and development of a joint interim government before declaring unification.

Biyegovic is one of a number of moderate Krajina leaders who have advocated negotiations with the Croatian government on such issues as repair of power stations, restoration of train service and extension of water lines as a first step toward more comprehensive peace talks.

The on-again, off-again peace negotiations resumed in Geneva last week with the signing of an interim cease-fire and new talks on economic and infrastructure issues. The United Nations said the two sides might be nearing a comprehensive cease-fire.

Moderate Serbian leaders have pushed for continuing the talks as a way of healing the desperate economic situation in Krajina, which is effectively subjected to the same international sanctions as Serbia.

“We are trying to take this step now in unification with (Bosnian Serbs), and in fact we really don’t know what the international community wants out of us,” Biyegovic said. “. . . I have to conclude that only by negotiation can things be solved.”

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