Fearful Name From a Nazi Past

Among the obstacles to peace in the Balkans, the fascist tendencies of Croatian President Franjo Tudjman deserve prominent mention. There is in Croatia, as in virtually every other country of Europe, an extreme right-wing faction. But to a considerable extent, the Tudjman problem has broken free of the general neo-fascism problem in Croatia and taken on an ugly little life of its own.

This became apparent last month when Tudjman overrode other authorities in the Croatian government and unilaterally changed the name of a new currency from kruna (crown) to kuna (marten).

Kruna was what the currency had been called under Austro-Hungarian rule. Kuna , most unfortunately, is what the currency was called when a Nazi puppet state ruled Croatia from 1941 through 1945.

To some, all this might seem a silly game. Dinar , the old name for the Croatian currency, had been the Yugoslav name and is still the Serbian name. The word is one that the Turks borrowed from the Arabs and brought with them when they conquered South Slavia; dinar is to this day the name for the currency in a number of Arab countries. But dinar too was borrowed--from the denarius of the ancient Romans .

Sadly, however, much more than etymology is at stake. The ethnic groups of the former Yugoslavia are so mixed that no peace plan has ever been proposed that would eliminate ethnic minorities. The only alternative to ethnic minorities is ethnically pure states created by slaughter or expulsion. Serb “ethnic cleansing” attempted that solution. But unless--as seems most unlikely--the major powers are prepared to bring about forced population transfers in Serbia as well as in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro and Macedonia, minorities will be left behind.

Will they be panicked minorities whose legitimate fears make them prey to demagogues planning aggression rather than defense? Or will they be reassured that the peace plan that even the Russians now support means more than dividing the former federation into smaller pieces and putting a different war criminal in charge of each piece?

Croatia should recognize its mistake, immediately, and withdraw the kuna from circulation. Tudjman would be humiliated, and would deserve it.