YWS 9/29

Yugoslav Daily Survey Directory

From: ddc@nyquist.bellcore.com (D.D. Chukurov)\n

CONTENTS:

- GUARANTEES OF EQUALITY OF REPUBLIKA SRPSKA - ZAGREB INSPIRED BY WORLD WAR II FASCIST CROATIA - ZAGREB ORDERED TO HALT DESTRUCTION OF SERB KRAJINA - WORDS BY DAY AND KNIVES BY NIGHT - CHILDREN ALSO IMPRISONED IN CAMPS - LEFT TO THE MERCY OF CROATIAN AUTHORITIES - TAKING REVENGE ON THE IMPOTENT - CROATIA - A LASTING FACTOR OF INSTABILITY - SHOOT NOW, PAY LATER - KRAJINA'S SURVIVORS STAGGER BACK 'HOME' - FOR SERBS, A FLASHBACK TO '43 HORROR

C O M M E N T S

NEW YORK AGREEMENT GUARANTEES EQUALITY OF REPUBLIKA SRPSKA (by Borislav Lalic) Yugoslav Foreign Minister Milan Milutinovic has said that the most important achievement of the agreement on the constitutional structure of the future joint state of Bosnia-Herzegovina, reached in New York on Tuesday, is the equal status of Republika Srpska (Bosnian Serb state) and the Muslim-Croat federation. Republika Srpska Vice President Nikola Koljevic said that the Serb side had fought for an equal status in Bosnia from the very beginning. Expressing his satisfaction with the decisions from Geneva and New York, Koljevic said that the thesis of the Yugoslav diplomacy - that a peaceful solution should be sought through an equal treatment of all three nations in Bosnia - had been accepted at the talks. The New York agreement on constitutional principles says not only that the two ethnic state entities would independently pursue their affairs, but also that it would not be possible for any side to outvote or dominate the other in the joint institutions of power, primarily parliament and the presidency. Republika Srpska Foreign Minister Aleksa Buha, who was in the Yugoslav delegation together with Koljevic, said that the peace process was heading in the right direction despite all difficulties and that this was the only way to end the war. The Yugoslav Foreign Minister, who also had difficult talks in New York with the other two negotiating sides, primarily with the Bosnian Muslims, believes that it is extremely important for the fate of peace that the next phase - the signing of a ceasefire agreement - be carried out as soon as possible. Once an agreement to that effect has been signed, Milutinovic believes that the peace process will be able to progress more easily, maybe with greater speed than until now. 'Things are nearing an end after all,' the Yugoslav Foreign Minister said and added that a peace conference on Bosnia, which the United States is already indicating, could be announced after the ceasefire agreement. These days, the Clinton administration is making intensive preparations for sending a 25,000-strong U.S. peace contingent. A possible engagement of a Russian peace contingent is also being mentioned, although it is still unknown who would command the forces and coordinate their actions. These are complicated issues, said Milutinovic, but they also depend on the kind of peace agreement that will be drawn up. It is easy to preserve and maintain peace if it is just, he said. ("Tanjug Daily Bulletin", Belgrade, September 28, 1995)

ZAGREB INSPIRED BY WORLD WAR II FASCIST CROATIA IN WEST BOSNIA ONSLAUGHT (by Nikola Stanojevic) The regular Croatian army and Bosnian Croat forces have not forgotten in their onslaught on West Bosnia that Ustashas, troops of the World War II Nazi puppet "Independent State of Croatia" and its leader Ante Pavelic, also used to ravage the region. Driven by identical goals, followers of 'laurelled' combatants of World War II Croatia, members of units that are 'proud' that they have been named after World War II criminals, have resumed in Western Bosnia where their predecessors, backed by Nazi Fuehrer Adolf Hitler, had left off. Consequently, one of the companies fighting in Western Bosnia is called Ludvig Pavlovic and is said to have been named after an 'honourable' man. The man in question is the only surviving member of the so-called 'Bugojno group,' an Ustasha terrorist team that was smuggled to the former Yugoslavia in 1972. Pavlovic spent 12 years in prison. During Croatia's violent secession from the former Yugoslavia he joined Croatian paramilitary troops. He was decorated posthumously by Croatian President Franjo Tudjman for 'sacrificing his life' for his country in 1992. Miro Baresic, the murderer of Yugoslav Ambassador to Sweden Vladimir Rolovic, has also been posthumously decorated by Tudjman. Zagreb continues to glorify World War II Croatia, a state of racist laws, death camps and slaughter, a state that had set up the Jasenovac concentration camp - the death site of Serbs, a state of 'knights' - Ustashas whom even the Gestapo called 'gesindel' (scum), although they had fought for the Third Reich in the battle of Stalingrad. About 700,000 Serbs, 80,000 Jews from Croatia and other parts of the Balkans and 80,000 Gypsies were killed in Jasenovac, the site of the biggest extermination camp in the Balkans. The Ustasha movement was revived during Croatia's secession in 1991, when at least 14,000 Serb civilians were killed in the former Yugoslav Republic, while more than 300,000 were expelled. The bodies of 2,500 Serb civilians, who were murdered by notorious liquidation teams, led by the then Croatian M.P. Tomislav Mercep, have been uncovered in mass graves at Pakracka Poljana and in Marino Selo, Western Slavonia. A dossier on these crimes has been circulated as an official U.N. document. A book on Pavelic and his state, written by notorious Ustasha emigrant Ivo Rojnica, living in Argentina, has recently been promoted in Zagreb in the presence of a large number of Croatian officials. Rojnica, who as a staff official in World War II Dubrovnik signed orders for liquidation of Serbs and Jews, was decorated last year by Tudjman during his visit to Argentina. ("Tanjug's Daily Bulletin", Belgrade, September 25, 1995)

BONN ORDERS ZAGREB TO HALT DESTRUCTION OF SERB KRAJINA (by Slobodan Jankovic) Germany has threatened Croatia that any further destruction of property owned by Krajina Serbs would affect their mutual relations and Croatia's ties with the European Union. The Croatian Charge d'Affaires in Bonn was summoned on Thursday evening to the Foreign Ministry where Secretary of State Peter Hartmann, acting on orders of Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel, conveyed the message. This was Germany's strongest warning to Croatia so far. Unfortunately, Bonn has belatedly noted that the looting and burning of Krajina Serb houses 'hinders the return of Serb refugees'. Germany could have prevented this from happening, but its condemnation of the Croatian attack on Serb Krajina in August had been very weak. The offensive, which resulted in mass destructions and expulsion of about 250,000 Serbs from their homes, was seen in the West as part of 'restoring the balance of forces' in the area. Meanwhile, Croatia has completed the ethnic cleansing of Western and Southeastern Krajina, making it abundantly clear to Krajina Serbs that they are not welcome. In an emergency procedure, the House of Representatives of the Croatian Parliament on Wednesday passed a bill on the temporary management of property left behind by Krajina Serbs. The Serbs who want to return to Krajina must first submit a series of documents to Croatian authorities which can only be obtained in their former places of residence now controlled by Croatia. Very few will be able to overcome these obstacles and Croatian authorities have counted precisely on this when they introduced the new regulations. Most of the Serb property will thus be seized by Croats, who are hurriedly settling in the areas which have been Serb lands for centuries. ("Tanjug's Daily Bulletin", Belgrade, September 25, 1995)

FROM DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN PRESS

WORDS BY DAY AND KNIVES BY NIGHT (by B. B. Mijic) By day, the official representatives of the Croatian authorities visited Serbs and assured them to stay, telling them that they would have the same rights as other citizens, while at night these same people burnt down farms and put knives under "Chetniks'" throats, intimidating and expelling them. Only those who managed to reach the woods stayed alive. The Serbs who were brave enough to stay on their estates after the August aggression against Knin felt the duplicity of the Croatian authorities. Thinking that their lives would be spared, many wanted to go on with their peaceful life at their homes and with Croat neighbours. "I did not feel like leaving since I am old and have no one. I did no harm to anybody and that's way, reconciled to my destiny, I thought to go on living in the old place. The Croatian police told us to stay, that nothing would happen to us. They also said that we would continue to share our common destiny. Unfortunately, this was so only until I, sure that all was quiet, went to Zadar to do some shopping. When I came back, my barn and house were set alight and all my valuables were taken away. I could only pick up my things and try to leave. But, I did not succeed. They immediately arrested and took me to a camp in Zadar. I was there one month, tortured and humiliated every day", says 70-years old Stana Vuljevic from the village of Muskovci near Obrovac. Serbs also paid a steep price for their trust in their next door neighbours with whom they spent their lives. "My next door neighbour was the last man to expect such things from. He came over and began to threaten my husband Drago cursing him. They kept shouting "You are Chetniks" and when he drew a knife against Drago his intentions were obvious. Luckily, he pushed out his elbow and was stabbed in the arm instead of the chest. We immediately fled to another village and, later on, we were caught and taken to a camp", remembers Janja Drca from the village of Vrane, Municipality of Biograd. Devastation was everywhere, the bodies of killed Serbs were left unburied for days - all these are the methods of the new Croatian democracy. All this was being hidden from the representatives of international humanitarian organizations, for no one had access to the villages where Serbs were tortured. "I was in the Knin hospital before the bombing and we were visited by the representatives of international humanitarian organizations. After the aggression, no one came, except Croatian soldiers who, instead of giving us medicine, lectured on origin and finally threatened to liquidate us. They said that it was better than to be left without a leg and go to the "Chetniks". Fortunately, not all thought like those raging soldiers. There were humane people among them and hats off to them. I was not the only one who was saved, a number of other wounded and sick Serbs were also in the Knin hospital", says Rade Cupurdija from Korenica whose leg was blasted by a shell. The saddest thing of all is to watch villages perishing in flames. All was done at lightning speed. Entire settlements were devoured by flames after all worthy things had been taken away. "Goscic, our village with 130 houses, disappeared in flames. All Serbian houses were burnt down and the situation was similar in the villages we passed through. The most important thing is that we are alive. I know that I will never go back there and I am not sorry for what I left behind", says Coso Popovic from the village of Goscic. ("Vecernje novosti", Belgrade, Septembre 21, 1995)

CHILDREN ALSO IMPRISONED IN CAMPS Out of 795 Serbs who had found refuge in the UNPROFOR base in Knin and who had been taken over Saturday evening by the Yugoslav Red Cross and the Commissariat of the Republic of Serbia for Refugees, the Croatian side kept about forty "war criminals". According to the testimony of Milovan Lezaja, a teacher from Gornji Karin, who on 6 August 1995 found shelter in the UNPROFOR (UNCRO) base near Benkovac, and then spent a month in the United Nations base in Knin, Croatian authorities sought to get as many people from UNPROFOR as possible, with the explanation that they were war criminals. According to Mr. Lezaja, anyone who fled to United Nations bases had a chance to survive. The ones who stayed "in freedom" risked their lives. The Croatian authorities tried everything to get men. They could achieve nothing in camps where they were said clearly that they had no right to mess around, as was the case with the commander of the Canadian battalion. "The Croats exerted pressure in all sorts of ways. They would come over for talks, trying to convince their interlocutors that there were many war criminals among the captured men, but the Canadians remained adamant. If it had not been for them, many more people would have gone", says Mr. Lazaja. According to Mr. Lezaja's testimony, the refugees organized their own protection in the United Nations camp in Knin held by the Jordanians. Young men formed another wire circle within which they sat isolated from unwanted visitors. Food and other aid distributed by the International Committee of the Red Cross were given first to children, mothers and weak people. At first, UNCRO representatives promised that they would not separate men from their families; later on, however, they did take away husbands and fathers in the presence of their wives and children. During the first negotiations held in the base in Knin, the Croatian authorities claimed that there were 68 war criminals. The Kenyan battalion promised that it would not hand over men, but subsequently they gave in and took 40 people before the refugees left for Yugoslavia. "I think that there is no reason to suspect any man of war crimes. Among those, handed over to the Croats, were also Bozo Cosic, an economist by profession, and Marko Strbac, a 60 years old farmer, whom I personally know. Strbac was an exceptionally good man who only helped other people, both the Serbs and the Croats, but UNCRO handed him over to the Croats nonetheless", says Mr. Lezaja. The Croatian soldiers rounded up the weak and old people in the villages of the Knin municipality who could not or did not want to leave their homes. The Croats took them to a camp in Zadar in which, according to the testimonies of the arriving refugees, there were about 250 people, including small children and babies. (Tanjug Press Agency, Belgrade, September 18, 1995)

LEFT TO THE MERCY OF CROATIAN AUTHORITIES (by Milan Bunjac) Within military operations "Lightning" and "Storm" against the western part of Krajina, the Croatian regime broadcast on its electronic media an appeal to Serbs to remain at home, guaranteed them security and the safety of their property, as well as full protection of their human rights. Whether it was just an empty promise is best known by those who survived the brutal shelling of refugee convoys at Okucani, Glina and Dvor na Uni, as well as those Serbs who, through a concourse of circumstances or by their own choice, remained to see the "reintegration". The number of the latter is far from being established and little is known about their status and future. Only the representatives of the International Red Cross take care of these people now, as well as their friends and relatives living in the urban parts of Croatia or abroad and "Veritas", the non- governmental humanitarian organization of Krajina. "Until now we in "Veritas" have ascertained that at least 880 captured Serbian soldiers and Serbs fit for military service are in military and civilian prisons in Croatia, while three to four thousand civilians, mostly older and ailing men and women, are in camps. Captured soldiers, as well as men fit for military service taken prisoner in civilian clothes, are being investigating since they are generally suspected of having committed a war crime against civilian population and, as announced, all of them will be arraigned", says Savo Strbac, the founder and chairman of Krajina's "Veritas". "Their temporary status has been defined in this way, they have been left to the mercy of the Croatian authorities, without a valid legal protection and assistance of whatever kind. The situation in which these people have found themselves is very difficult in every respect and poses a legal provocation to lawmen, as well as to lay men, the members of international organizations who profess to care for human rights and humanity in general", says Strbac. According to what he has found out, Croatian politicians and authorities are shamelessly manipulating the situation and it is very worrisome that some representatives of the United Nations are participating in that enterprise in their own way. Corroborating his assertions, Mr. Strbac singles out the well- known "case" of the hand-over of 38 citizens of Knin to the Croatian authorities by the UNCRO Sector South command in wanton disregard for its obligation to protect them. "Rather than any incriminating evidence", says Strbac, "the hand-over requests contain only assumptions that "in pursuit of the Great Serbian idea throughout the entire existence of the so- called Serbian Autonomous Province of Krajina, the suspects threw in all the places of the Knin region inhabited by Croats explosive devices in the courtyards of their homes, shot at their homes and brutally intimidated them in other ways with the aim of forcing them to leave their homes." "Besides, among the people who have been handed over is certain Slavko Babic, bedridden for many years by multiple sclerosis, which is telltale proof that international law and rules and regulations are being manipulated in which, as can be seen, some officials of the United Nations also participate," underlines Mr. Strbac. He has already established contacts with the representatives of the international association "Avocats sans frontieres", whose members are very interested and announced their assistance if these people are tried. Strbac is therefore hopeful that most of the suspects will be released following investigation or the completion of the proceedings. For, nobody believes in the promised abolition any more. The fate of the civilians in Croatian camps from Kutina to Sibenik is also far from being rosy. This all the more so as these are the old and ailing people, left without families, property or basic existential means. They are being manipulated in a similar way, their freedom of movement is restricted, they have no documents and a number of tragedies have occurred and grave crimes have already been committed against them. "With the guarantees of friends and relatives they can leave the camps under a streamlined procedure and return to their devastated homes. Over there, they are awaited by Croatian extremists who, allegedly, cannot be controlled by the Croatian authorities and who harass and maltreat and sometimes even kill and massacre them," says Mr. Strbac. "Two civilians were killed at Bukovic, near Benkovac, immediately upon their release from the camp, the village of Plavno was burned down and twenty villagers were killed or slaughtered about ten days after it was officially announced that "Storm" had been completed", says Strbac, invoking the testimonies of the representatives of the International Red Cross. The villagers of Gosic near Knin who had fallen behind the refugee convoys were taken to a camp in Zadar and then allowed to go home after the intercession of an acquaintance. After he came to see them three days later, they all were slaughtered and massacred. He asked for UNCRO intervention and assistance from Knin, but when they returned to the village, the bodies had been removed. This case is still being investigated and, on its part, "Veritas" collected sufficient evidence about this crime. The number of killed and disappeared persons is a big unknown, since "Veritas" is at great pains to obtain valid and reliable data, so that Mr. Strbac only hinted that the figure might be painfully high. He said that his associates would persevere in collecting data, evidence and documents about the people to have been harmed in whatever way and refuses to believe Tudjman's promises that he will protect the Serbs and their human rights. After all, all the promises of the Croatian authorities have been blown by "Storm" and the Law on the management of the abandoned property. The only promise that has been fulfilled was the one from 1991 - that Serbs will have to leave Croatia in their peasant shoes, but that they will not be allowed to take away a tiny bit of Croatian earth on them. ("Nasa Borba", Belgrade, September 26, 1995)

TAKING REVENGE ON THE IMPOTENT (by B.B.Mijic) The Serbs who wanted to stay in their homes even after the aggression on Knin were harassed and then ruthlessly executed by Croatian soldiers in order to create an ethnically pure State. The exact number of the killed people will probably never be ascertained, since entire families were liquidated, relate the captives who were lucky enough to get out, with UNPROFOR assistance, of the Croatians camps in Knin and Zadar and come to Serbia. The aggression of Croatian soldiers on Knin was a shock for many people and particularly for those who lived in the surrounding villages and while the people of Knin left the town in time and went to Serbia, the hesitant ones in the villages were committed great atrocities against by the Croats. Comforting themselves that they did no harm to anyone, to Tudjman's Croatia in particular, many hoped that they would be able to continue to live without persecution and harassment. They paid for their naivete with their lives, while those more "fortunate" suffered "only" grave injuries or psychological traumas. This is particularly true of the people living in the villages near Knin and Zadar. The aggression brought in its train an unseen hunt even for weak old people and small children. "Those who did not want to or could not run were immediately rounded up by the Ustashe and taken away to collection courtyards. Most often there were the courtyards of local government offices or medical centres. They were ordered to lie for hours motionless face down to the earth. Those who dared to move the head like Petar Saponja got a bullet in the head", recalls the horrible scenes Stevo Karan from the village of Dobropolje near Benkovac. The head hunt was synchronized and organized since heavily armed soldiers burst into villages from all directions so that it was not possible to escape. Those who were found hiding were liquidated on the spot. "A brother and sister from our village were killed at the doorstep of their home. They refused to go with the Ustashe saying that they did no harm to anybody. They were mowed down without a modicum of compunction. When I saw this, I changed my mind, particularly when they put a knife above my heart and asked me whether it still beat. I was taken to the camp in Knin with many curses of "my Chetnik mother", says Marija Popovic from the village of Goscic, overjoyed that she stayed alive. Village raids were frightening. People were taken away without explanation, with horrified children and weak old people who had to be carried most of the time since they could not walk. These unfortunate people left behind their burning homes. "I managed to flee to the fields with the livestock before the raid. I was hiding in corn fields. That evening I sneaked into the village and saw my house and stable burning, while my tractor and car had been driven away. What else could I do but leave the livestock in the field and run to the woods where I hid for ten days. Finally I decided to go to my sister's to Ostrevci. But, I was unlucky, since soon they came to this village as well and arrested all people including me and my sister Manda Mandic and her son Sima", says eighty-year old Nikola Dobric from the village of Dobropolje. "I still saved my life, since eight people were killed in the village of Bojsic just because they said they were Serbs. The moment they heard that they were Serbs they shot them in the head. This is Croatian democracy." The mass persecution and executions were aimed at intimidating and expelling the Serbs. Those who were "more fortunate" only ended up in camps. The intimidation went so far that no one was allowed to remove the bodies of the killed because they had to serve as a warning to others. "Jovo Vujatovic and Dusan Vukadin were killed in front of me just because they were Serbs. Jovo's body was on the road for many days vigilantly watched by the Ustashe so that nobody would remove it", recalls Djordje Knezevic from the village of Vrnik. ("Vecernje novosti", Belgrade, September 20, 1995)

CROATIA - A LASTING FACTOR OF INSTABILITY An interview given by Nikolai Izvekov, foreign policy consultant, to Aleksandr Kushnir: Question: NATO air strikes and the Muslim-Croatian offensive against Bosnian Serbs, begun under the protection of NATO forces, are being condemned in Russia. What is, in your assessment, the Western position in this regard? Answer: Many in the United States and the countries of Western Europe are now worried over the developments in the territory of the former Yugoslavia. The cause of the worry this time round is the aggressiveness of Croatia. Baker Spring, a well- known American political commentator, for instance, expressed his concern these days that Croatia would become a lasting factor of destabilization on the political and military scene of the former Yugoslavia. Unfortunately, we have to agree with this assessment of the developments in the Balkans. However, if one says "a", one ought to say "b", i.e. list the reasons and circumstances which have led to the sudden deterioration of the situation in the region. These are, first and foremost, the aggressive actions of the Croatian government in Zagreb. It embarked on the offensive against the Serbian positions with obvious tolerance of NATO powers, primarily the United States and Germany. It was exactly after the massive NATO aerial bombardment of the Serbian areas in Bosnia that the Croatian-Muslim forces began their offensive which continues also today and which is aimed at pushing the Serbs out of a sizable part of this former Yugoslav republic in which they have lived from time immemorial. However, even in these conditions when the aggressiveness of the Croats and the Muslims is in full glare, NATO refuses to do anything to stop them. What this tactics of double standards can lead to, is quite clear. A quarter of a million of Serbian refugees from the western part of the Republic of Serbian Krajina will be joined by a few hundred thousands from Western and Central Bosnia. However, the public opinion in the countries of Western Europe and the United States, which until now has had the picture of brutal demoniac Serbs imposed on itself, was recently shattered by the real brutality and cynicism of the ethnic cleansing of the Serbian population of Krajina by the Croats which assumed the proportions of true genocide. Question: You consider that the NATO air strikes against the Serbian areas in Bosnia have essentially led to the activation of war operations in it. But, NATO has a UN mandate to carry out peace missions in Bosnia and according to this mandate the North Atlantic alliance must prevent the activation of war operations by whichever side. What in fact is happening in real life? Answer: In real life, the NATO presence in the Balkans over the two years has proved that this military-political organization is very biased in its approach to things and that it has taken an anti-Serbian position. That's why the logical request is that one of the conditions of the forthcoming peace solution of the crisis should be NATO's withdrawal from the Balkan Peninsula since its continued presence there cannot guarantee mutual restraint by belligerent parties. On the contrary, the continued NATO presence can encourage the Croats and the Muslims to take the entire territory of Bosnia. It would compel the FR of Yugoslavia to join the fray, which in turn could lead to the escalation of the conflict in the Balkans and would threaten peace and security in Europe. Everybody should be aware of the danger of such developments, including NATO members, whose actions in the former Yugoslavia complicate a peaceful solution in it. ("The Voice of Russia", Moscow, September 21, 1995)

SHOOT NOW, PAY LATER (by Gregory R.Copley) This journal predicted, earlier this year, the impending Croatian offensive against those of its own citizens who, although they were of Serbian cultural origin, were of families whose lineage for centuries was from the Krajina and Slavonian areas of what is today Croatia. The offensive, when it came as predicted, was of a ferocity which was staggering. It harkened back to the savagery of the Croatian Ustase attacks on civilians during World War II. The world's media was not on hand to report what was the most brutal case of genuine "ethnic cleansing". It was an action which showed clearly the involvement of the U.S. Clinton Administration, supporting - with the German Government - the Croatian Government of Franjo Tudjman. U.S. Ambassador to Croatia Peter Galbright visited Belgrade just before the Croatian offensive, specifically to cajole and threaten the Yugoslav Government, so that it would not interfere with the Croatian genocidal offensive. Had the Yugoslav Government refused to listen to these threats, it is possible that the Croatian Government could have been persuaded not to attack the Krajina Serbs. But Galibright used all the powers available to him to do the work of the Croatian Government and, as such, he bears enormous responsibility for the thousands of deaths and the hundreds of thousands of refugees. This was a war crime more then worthy of the name. So, too, was the late August "marketplace mortar attack" on Sarajevo, blamed again on the Bosnian Serbs. This new "mortar attack" was used as the trigger for a US-led major air attack on the Bosnian Serbs, again causing massive damage and loss of life. We know several things about this event, too:

Firstly, as with the earlier Sarajevo marketplace "mortar

Secondly, the US Administration, which used the incident

Thirdly, the Izetbegovic Muslim administration basically

Fourth, US Administration sources repeated to this journal

KRAJINA'S SURVIVORS STAGGER BACK 'HOME' (by Robert Fisk) Many of them had to be carried on to the buses, clinging on to their crutches, their shawls, their pathetic plastic bags. We quickly lost count of the old women among the 1,340 Serbs, from Krajina, weeping - most of them - or coughing in the near- freezing breeze that swept down from the plains of Vojvodina. One mumbled about murder, of a neighbour bayoneted on a tractor, of six others gunned down by a Croatian soldier wearing a black headband on a mountain road. One old woman, bent almost double, was so confused she could not even remember the name of the home village she had left less that two weeks ago. So, the last of the Serbs of Krajina - almost the final survivors - came "home" to Serbia this weekend, the Croatian "cleansing" of the old frontier land accompanied, as usual, by the humanitarian assistance of the United Nations. Back in Knin the Croats had demanded that he U.N. hand over 34 of the refugees under their protection as "war criminals" and then added another six names - including that of a woman - for good measure at the 11th hour. The U.N. let them be taken away before the Croats escorted the convoy out of the land in which Serbs have lived for generations. Some of the Serbs were met by relatives from Novi Sad or Belgrade but many of the old had nowhere to go but the bleak "reception centres" on the road to Hungary. "They will not live long now they have left their homes," a Serb nurse said with academic detachment. "In circumstances like these and without family, old people are finished. But what are we going to do with the new refugees that will come from Serbian Bosnia? How are we going to house the thousands who have now fled Jajce, Sanski Most and Kljuc? What if Banja Luka falls?" It was not a question that bore much thinking about on the cold road outside Lipovac, where the "milicija" arc-lights lit up the swinging, wintry trees beside Tito's old "Highway of Brotherhood and Unity". If it took five hours to process just over a thousand refugees from Krajina, how long would it take to absorb a quarter of a million or more from Bosnia, far greater even than the original Krajina exodus last month? Would a world grown weary of Serb atrocities find any compassion for the next forced emigration of hungry Serb civilians? The stories of the men and women who had finally left their homes in the mountain villages were no less fearful for being familiar. There was 42-year-old Marija Grujo from Radje, for instance, who did not want to leave her ancestral home even after the Croats had conquered the preposterous army of the "Serb Krajina Republic". "We decided to leave on the Sunday after the war," she said. "I was with my neighbour and her husband on our tractor, and another neighbour, Bojan Milos, was the driver. We took bedding and took for the babies and set off with other families. Then on a winding hill road, our convoy of tractors was stopped by four men, two in Croatian uniform and two armed civilians." Marija Grujo was too tired to show emotion as she described what happened next: "One of the soldiers wore a black headband. He looked at Bojan Milos and attacked hem with a bayonet. He pushed it into Bojan's stomach and tore at him. Bojan just fell back, groaning. The soldier stole his watch and then started shooting at the other people on the tractors. He killed six of them. Then they made us get off the tractors and walk. We were handed over to other men who took us to Zadar (on the Croatian coast)". At least 250 other Serbs had been held in Zadar, most of them having believed the Croatian President Franjo Tudjman's original claim that they could stay in their homes - until Croat troops burned the surrounding villages and ordered them out. Jovo and Zorka Obradovic stayed for two weeks in Dabasic after the arrival of Croat troops. Only when they burned his own home, Jovo Obradovic said, did he tell a Croatian officer that "Tudjman is a liar." He was arrested along with his wife, taken to Zadar and put on the weekend convoy to Serbia. According to U.N. officials, there were heartrending scenes when the 40 accused of "war crimes" by the Croats were taken from the UN compound in Knin - the deal under which the remaining refugees could leave for Serbia. U.N. officers followed the Croat buses that took the prisoners to Zadar, their families were allowed to go to Zadar but not to live with them there. Smilja Erakovic, the 35-year-old wife of the local Serb military commander at Svilaj - already a prisoner - was handed over to the Croats. Her two young children were, apparently with her permission, put on the U.N. buses to Serbia, alone. Yasushi Akashi, the U.N. special envoy, had solemnly agreed that the Croats must level serious criminal charges before the U.N. handed over their Serbs to Croat "justice", but the Croats broke the agreement, at one point branding a man of 82 and two children as "war criminals" along with a woman they had wrongly identified as Mr Erakovic's wife. ("Independent", London, September 18, 1995).

FOR SERBS, A FLASHBACK TO '43 HORROR (by Mike O'Connor) People here say that as the Croatian Army's artillery opened up on this rural town on the Una River on Tuesday, the chilling fears that have lived here for 52 years were confirmed. The attack on this town at the edge of the war in western Bosnia was not, the residents insisted, part of the Croatian Government's effort to help Bosnia reclaim territory taken and brutally purged by Serbian forces three years ago. Rather it, and the campaign against other small towns in this region, was a continuation of the crusade to exterminate Serbs. So when Vesa Pralica, 72, saw the Croatian soldiers storm over her small farm and kick on the door to her cottage, she says she could only think of the Croatian fascist forces who killed tens of thousands of Serb civilians in the mountains nearby in 1942. "The Croats hate us and want us dead", she said. To the diplomats and politicians plotting peace in the Balkans, the continuing offensive by the Bosnian and Croatian Governments is awkward. To those who live on the front, where conquest and defeat have so often been followed by vicious reprisals, it is terrifying. The tactics used against this town have done little to ease the panic. The soldiers who Mrs. Pralica says slipped across the river from Croatia were apparently hoping to set up a forward command post. They brought two radio operators, and according to Serb officers, were preparing the way for a crossing of the river and a sweep into this part of Serb territory. But Mrs. Pralica says they began killing her neighbours. Perhaps to keep their presence a secret, or out of viciousness, as residents here maintain, they killed eight civilians. After her husband was killed, the woman from next door grabbed her daughter and ran with her to Mrs. Pralica's cottage. "We wanted to keep the soldiers calm," Mrs. Pralica said, "but the little girl, about 8 years old, she just kept crying about how her father had been killed. She tried to stop herself by covering her mouth, but she couldn't". She said she thought that her appeals to soldiers as a grandmother may have saved the three of them. Bosnian Serb officers say the Croatian position was discovered and the soldiers were killed or escaped. Today at the morgue there were eight dead, including women and children, all dressed in civilians clothing. The only apparent wounds on six of the bodies were severe blows to the back of the head, as if they had been clubbed. Two of the dead, including an elderly woman, had had their eyes taken out, although there was no way to determine when this had been done. While in the capitals of the Balkan countries - Zagreb, Belgrade, Sarajevo - and in the West, this war is about geopolitics and diplomacy, in this town it is about fear, and it is very personal. "My house is 150 feet from here, we will not retreat," said Pantelija Curguz, who before the war was a construction worker but now is the commander of Serb forces here. Nearly all his troops are from this area and right now, he says, they are fighting to keep their families from becoming refugees, or much worse. Saying that 18 of his family members had been killed in 1943 at Jasenovac, an extermination camp run by Croatian fascist forces, he declared, "We are not going to let them line us up like cattle again and march us off to Jasenovac". People around this city were eager to repeat that of the 27,000 residents here in 1943, 17,000 were killed in the camp. Whether that figure is even close to accurate is not as important as that people believe it is correct. Seeking to protect themselves, Serbs tried to create a state in which only they had power. So today this area is almost empty of Muslims or Croats, all of whom were killed or expelled in earlier ethnic purges. In explaining their fear today by what happened to them five decades ago, the people seemed to forget what happened to their neighbours only three years ago. "They decided to leave voluntarily", insisted a Serbian military officer, using a phrase heard often in towns when people talk of the departed Muslims and Croats. In recent years, and until Yugoslavia broke apart, Croats and Muslims reportedly lived easily with Serbs here. Before the side of the town north of the river became part of an independent and hostile country, they were work mates, husbands and wives, and students at the single high school. Today, the high school and the gym next to it are devastated by Tuesday's shelling. The classroom where industrial design was taught is filled with concrete chunks from the three-foot-wide hole in the outside wall made by an artillery round. The hospital, which formerly served the whole community, was hit several times. The fins of a 120-millimeter mortar round protrude from the crater it made when it hit 40 feet from the entrance to the maternity ward. However, there is not a block downtown where a business or apartment building escaped the shelling. A retired textile worker, Djuro Skrovic whose apartment was blown apart, said "They want to kill us all just because we are Serbs". And the talk of the town is not of how nice it was to live together before the war. The talk is of how it is a good thing the Muslims and the Croats are gone. ("The New York Times International", September 21, 1995)

- I speak for no one and no one speaks for me --