Die militärischen Handlungsschemata der ... - Dr. Alois Mock

hatten. “One way of frustrating the Serbs was to make it almost impossible for them
to travel along the Highway between Sectors East and West, even though the
Economic Agreement expressly permitted them to do just that. Almost immediately
the Croatian police began taking several hours to clear each individual Serb vehicle
through their checkpoints. (...) By Monday 24 April Milan Martic had almost given
them that excuse. Speaking on Radio Knin the previous evening he said that he was
tired of writing warning letters to Boutros Boutros-Ghali and other officials in charge
of the negotiating process. ‘Since we cannot bring our fuel to the Krajina, or any
other material, I have informed the UN that I have ordered the highway to be closed
for twenty four hours commencing on 24 April [at] 0600 hrs. If this measure does not
improve the situation then the RSK leadership will decide on the suspension of the
economic relations with Croatia, because we do not want the RSK to be
underestimated.’ And indeed Martic had a point because on Saturday about 400
Serb cars had been lined up queuing for petrol at the Croat service station in Nova
Gradiska but were unable to buy any fuel. Then, on Sunday, about seventy Serb
trucks on the highway at the Lipovac crossing point in Sector East were left waiting
for clearance to travel onwards as the Croatian police began implementing a ‚go
slow’ policy, which essentially frustrated the whole agreement. The Croatian
response was totally predictable and a government statement was issued
immediately to the effect that the Serbs had ‘permanently’ closed the road. (...) With
that out of the way, Martic, Babic and Mikelic then met with the ICFY co-chairman,
Thorvald Stoltenberg, who had just arrived in Knin to discuss the matter of reopening
the Highway. No doubt the four of them were very impressed by the ‚diplomatic’ and
conciliatory statement issued that afternoon by Hrnjvo Sarinic on behalf of President
Tudjman which said, ‚If the Serbs do not open the highway at 0600 hrs on Tuesday,
the Croatian police will do it for them.’ In any event logic finally prevailed in Knin and
at 0500 hrs the following morning the barriers on both sides of the dual carriageway
were removed. At the subsequent press conference Martic denied that he had
capitulated in the face of the Croatian ultimatum, preferring instead to make another
attempt at explaining why he had closed the road in the first place.” 240
In der Region weiß mittlerweile fast jeder, was los ist und Henrik Markus, ECMM
Verbindungsoffizier im UN-Sektor West-HQ in Daruvar, schickt einen detaillierten
Bericht an das ECMM-HQ am 24. April. In diesem zählt er genau auf, wass passiert,
nennt Truppenzahlen und deren Stationierungsort und wohin sich diese eben
bewegen sowie die Anzahl an Panzern, die an der Bewegung teilnehmen. Die HV
scheine bereit, “den nördlichen Teil des UNPA jederzeit einzunehmen”, schreibt er.
240 O’Shea, Crisis at Bihac. S. 197 - 200
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