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UN: Harassment of Bosnian Serbs Will Destroy Multi-Ethnic Bosnia
‘At stake is the entire multi-ethnic
By Jovan Kovacic
SARAJEVO, June 14 (Reuterss) - Harassment of Bosnian Serbs who stayed in Sarajevo is increasing and threatening to wreck the multi-ethnic fabric of the city, the United Nations said on Friday. "There is a general increase of harassment of Serbs in the Sarajevo suburbs," U.N. International Police Task Force (IPTF) spokesman Alexandar Ivanko told reporters.
"The trend of harassment has started in April. It is not declining, it is increasing and Serbs are saying they are going to leave," he said. U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) spokesman Kris Janowski said the trend could shatter the multi-ethnic fabric of the city which the mainly-Muslim authorities say they are keen to preserve.
"At stake is the entire multi-ethnic character of the city and it is alarming," he said. Ivanko said one Serb and one Croat were "badly beaten" by six men in Bosnian government army uniforms in the Sarajevo suburb of Semizovac on Thursday. They were being treated in a French army hospital. The UNHCR was checking reports of thugs intimidating residents of Ilidza, Ilijas and Vogosca with threats to blow up their homes at night, Janowski said.
The formerly Serb-held suburbs of Sarajevo were handed over to the Bosnian federation control earlier this year under the Dayton peace agreement. Prompted by their hardline leadership, most of the Serb population fled but some chose to stay behind believing promises they would be protected by NATO, the IPTF and the federation police.
During the 43-month war, the Bosnian Serb authorities drew international condemnation for systematically expelling Croa and Muslim civilians from Serb-held territory. But since the handover of the suburbs in March, U.N. relief workers and police have warned of growing lawlessness and ethnic violence against the small Serb community left.
Ivanko said the IPTF was told the perpetrators were mostly refugees from Serb-held territories. "We were told by the Ilidza police that the simple reason why Serbs were being targeted is that they are the only ones who have anything left to steal," he said.
The ruling Muslim Party of Democratic Action (SDA) enjoys widespread support in rural areas but not in urban communities like Sarajevo. Some observers fear that the demographic composition of the city will be changed forever by the influx of refugees. But Janowski said there was still no evidence the government had elections, scheduled for September, in mind while transferring homeless refugees to vacated flats in Sarajevo.
"We have no evidence of a Machiavellian plan to change the electorate in Sarajevo," he said. Under the Dayton peace accord, homeless refugees have the right to temporarily occupy vacated homes. At the same time, ownership rights remain inviolate.
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