BEVERLY HILLS : For World-Traveling Biker, Peace Is a Long, Hard Road

It is a simple message of peace, but Croatian ship mechanic Ante Tokic conveys it the hard way.

In a round-the-world tour aimed at promoting peace in Croatia, Tokic has ridden his mountain bike 39,000 miles--through the red deserts of Australia, amid Nepal’s towering Himalayas and in nonstop rain in Alaska.

It has been 37 countries and almost four years since he started. Now, in a weeklong stop in Los Angeles, Tokic is resting his legs, collecting seven months of mail and telling one and all what he has learned in his travels.

“People are basically alike, whether they’re Muslims, Catholics or Hindus,” said Tokic, 25, during an appearance Monday in Beverly Hills. “All people care about peace and appreciate the fact that I came all this way to promote peace.”

Since he left Split, Croatia, in March, 1991, Tokic has ridden a mind-boggling route. He has pedaled through Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala and Mexico. He has biked through the southern United States, up the Eastern Seaboard to Canada and Alaska, and back down the Pacific coast.

He has had to resort to planes and ships to get him across oceans, but otherwise his conveyance is a Raleigh mountain bike laden with more than 60 pounds of gear, including a tent, stove, sleeping bag and lantern.

Along the way, Tokic has met with Croatian church groups, held news conferences and talked about the Balkans with people who have stopped him on the street. Using his own fractured homeland as an example, he tells listeners that fighting is not the way to solve differences between people.

Said Tokic: “It is hard for Croatians with no arms or legs to forgive the Serbs, but they must, if we all want to live together.”

Tokic’s tour started on a far more optimistic note; it was originally intended to celebrate the liberation of Croatia from communism and Serbian domination.

That changed a few months later, while he was cycling through India. A brutal civil war had broken out in his homeland, and the Serbian-led army swallowed up almost a third of Croatia.

Tokic said he debated returning home and joining the fight against the Serbs. But, he said, he decided to keep pedaling, thinking he could do more for his country as he campaigned for a free Croatia.

Opposing forces in Croatia are now abiding by a tenuous cease-fire, with United Nations forces serving as a buffer between Serb forces in southern Croatia and the Croatian government forces, which control the rest of the country.

Tokic said he keeps abreast of the political situation in his homeland through the extensive network of Croatians living in other countries. He has been welcomed into many of their homes, simply by looking in a telephone book for a Croatian surname when he arrives in a large city.

Tokic is on the final phase of his journey. From Los Angeles he will fly to London, and then bicycle south through Europe, and home.

Though the cycling will end, he said, his campaign will not. Tokic said he plans to take his stories and 12,000 slides to schools throughout Croatia, adding: “I need to tell the children we must live in peace, for the future of our country.”