IN A LIVE TELEVISION ADdress broadcast in August, Croatian President Franjo Tudjman described his vision of the ongoing dispute in eastern Slavonia: “The world is recommending we use peaceful means and be patient. … If this proves impossible – as it was impossible to liberate the central Croatian areas [Krajina and western Slavonia] – there will be new storms and new thunders.”1 Two months later in Dayton, Ohio, Tudjman helped hammer out a deal that did resolve the issue peacefully, providing for the return of Serb-controlled territory to Croatia. Yet the local Croatian population in eastern Slavonia, emboldened by such pronouncements and by recent military success, remains extremely skeptical about the likelihood of reintegration without force.
