Eastern Slavonia Back in Croatian Hands

The Croatian government took control of its entire territory Thursday for the first time since declaring independence 6 1/2 years ago and was admonished by U.S. officials to protect the rights of its minority Serbs.

In a ceremony in a suburb of the devastated city of Vukovar, where the 1991 Serb-Croat war began, the last piece of Croatia seized by rebel Serbs, the Eastern Slavonia region hugging the Danube River, was formally restored to Zagreb’s rule, and a two-year U.N. peacekeeping mission came to an end.

“The responsibility for erecting a sound, enduring structure on this foundation [laid by the U.S.-led United Nations mission] now passes to the hands of the government, the people of Croatia,” said William Walker, the U.S. diplomat who headed the operation. “They cannot live in the past. They must move forward.”

An estimated 80,000 Croats fled the region after an especially vicious war was launched by Serbs challenging Croatia’s move for independence in 1991. Many spent the last 6 1/2 years as refugees but now want to return to homes that have since been occupied by Serbs--who in turn fled fighting and Croatian army offensives in other parts of Croatia.

The test now is whether Croatia’s nationalist government, which has often worked to rid the country of its ethnic Serb citizens, will live up to its promises to protect Serbs from vengeful Croats and include Serbs in Eastern Slavonia’s police force, judiciary and public administration.

“The government’s ultimate intentions,” Walker told an auditorium packed with dignitaries from Zagreb, the U.S. and the U.N., “are as yet based only on words, not actions.”

On the eve of the hand-over, an elderly Serb was killed by a Croat returnee in the village of Grabovac, an incident that both illustrated and exacerbated the insecurity felt by Croatian Serb refugees. Emil Dragicevic, 77, was fatally shot Wednesday night, allegedly by a drunken Croat, relatives and a witness said. The Croat was arrested and may have been the same man who killed another Serb two months ago but who was let off with a lenient sentence, villagers said.

The dead man was a refugee, but the alleged murderer did not have claims on the Serb’s house or other personal grievances and may have acted out of drunkenness, Dragicevic’s son Slobodan said. Still, it was the kind of incident--coupled with reports of sporadic forced evictions and considerable harassment--that unnerves the Croatian Serbs.

“Every threat, every violence . . . causes additional fear and causes people not to trust,” said Djuro Kresovic, a Croatian Serb refugee community leader, who was paying his respects to weeping members of the Dragicevic family.

The Clinton administration, while lauding Croatia for its promise to be “tolerant and diverse,” called on President Franjo Tudjman to let all refugees return home and to respect the human rights of all the nation’s citizens. “The government of Croatia will be held to its obligations,” said Robert Gelbard, Clinton’s special envoy to the Balkans. Gelbard attended Thursday’s ceremony in the Borovo Naselje suburb of Vukovar as part of a tour through the region.

Croatia’s aspirations to join Western institutions such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the European Union depend in part on its treatment of its minorities, Gelbard said.

To mark the formal reunification of Croatia, Zagreb officials rode a train into the ruins of Vukovar, then were returning to the capital for gala receptions.

Despite Western urging, reconciliation was not the theme in many spots. A commentator on Radio Osijek, a hard-line Croat nationalist city on the edge of Eastern Slavonia, rejoiced that foreign peacemakers were departing and that the idea of “Greater Serbia” was dead. Songs glorified those who had died for Croatia.