Croats Still Resisting Union With Muslims

On paper, at least, the nationalist Bosnian Croat ministate of Herceg-Bosna was to begin dissolving at midnight Saturday as part of a U.S.-led effort to turn Bosnia’s fragile Muslim-Croat federation into reality.

Under the same plan, about 40 institutions and functions of the Muslim-led Bosnian government, including its secret police, were to be transferred to the federation or abolished.

U.S. diplomats consider these steps essential to the survival of the federation, a weak alliance of Muslims and Croats that will rule half of Bosnia as a counterweight to the Bosnian Serb half of the country, known as the Republika Srpska.

But resistance remains strong among hard-line Croats who, in addition to battling Bosnian Serbs, fought the Muslims before becoming their nominal allies.

On Saturday, there was no sign of Herceg-Bosna’s demise here in the Bosnian Croat stronghold of Kiseljak, 18 miles west of Sarajevo, the capital. As in the rest of Croat-held Bosnia-Herzegovina, residents use the Croatian currency and display flags and license plates that closely resemble those of Croatia.

Marinko Tuka, a 35-year-old official with the Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which dominates Bosnian Croat territory, summed up a lot of the reluctance. Croats maintain a better standard of living, have a better-organized government and do not want to be treated as minorities in a mostly Muslim state, he said.

“Only when Croats in Sarajevo have equal rights and an equal chance at jobs and benefits,” Tuka said, would he recognize Sarajevo as his capital. And the chances of that, he said, are slim.

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Tuka said he was wounded three times in fighting with the Muslims. After all that has happened, he said, it is probably too late for most Muslims and Croats to live together again. Most of Kiseljak’s prewar Muslim population, about 40% of the total, fled or was expelled, while 9,500 Bosnian Croat refugees banished from other parts of Bosnia have moved to the city.

Key to Bosnia’s future is whether the Bosnian Croats will actively work within the federation or--like the Serbs--press their demands to secede.

Herceg-Bosna is home to pockets of virulent anti-Muslim sentiment and an extensive organized-crime network whereby warlords and profiteers thrive on business from smuggled goods, stolen cars, drug trafficking and other enterprises. Losing their financial gains is one of the underlying fears that some leaders of Herceg-Bosna harbor.

The disappearance of Herceg-Bosna and the consolidation of other government functions was agreed upon by the presidents of Bosnia and Croatia, meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher in Geneva on Aug. 14.

Despite the original Saturday midnight deadline for all signs of Herceg-Bosna to start vanishing, U.S. mediators agreed last week, to a 15-day “implementation schedule” leading up to Bosnia’s Sept. 14 general election.

“This is a grinding-away process,” U.S. Assistant Secretary of State John Kornblum said in Sarajevo on Friday night.