ABSTRACT
Rusmir Mahmutcehajic The presentations we have heard make it clear that what we have been calling 'the war in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina' was really a war against Bosnia-Herzegovina, even though none of the speakers explicitly defined it as such. I think we have to confront this failure to define the issue. Despite their negative view of Tudman's politics, moreover, none of the speakers said clearly that Tudman's war in Bosnia-Herzegovina was not against the Serbs but against Bosnia-Herzegovina, with an aim made explicit a year before the start of the war, when he said: 'Territorial concessions must be made to the Serbs so as to eliminate the reasons for Serbian imperialistic policies'1 - 'concessions' which implied the destruction of Bosnia-Herzegovina. 1 At the end of 1991, Tudman organized a reception for the chief editors of most Croatian newspapers and Croatian radio and television, in the course of which he responded to their questions. Two topical issues dominated the meeting: the announcement of the European Union that, following the decision of the Badinter Commission, it would recognize Slovenia and Croatia on 15 January 1992; and the JNA-supported Greater Serbia insurrection in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Commenting on a recent statement by Milosevic on the 'coexistence of Serbs and Muslims in B-H', in which the absence of reference to Croats could be understood as an indirect offer to Croatia of parts of that country, he said: 'Willingness to change borders could mean that war is not inevitable in B-H ... It may be possible to reach an agreement as in 1939, but on even more favourable terms.'
