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Muslims Cross Peacefully into Brcko, Testing Free Movement
BRCKO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — With U.S. armor covering an escape route, 49 Muslims on Thursday paid their first peaceful visit to family graves in this Serb stronghold since the end of the war. U.S. forces with tanks and Bradley armored fighting vehicles were on alert because they had heard Serb snipers were in the area, officers said. But the local U.S. Army commander and leaders of the Muslim group credited Bosnian Serb police for the smooth visit.
Brcko, astride a vital corridor in northeastern Bosnia, was one of the most hotly contested cities in Bosnia’s 3½-year war. It links most of Bosnian Serb-controlled territory to the west with Serbia to the east. The area also ties Croatia to the north with Muslim and Croat areas of Bosnia to the south.
On three previous visits to the large Muslim cemetery near the former front line, Muslims encountered angry, stone-throwing Serbs. The graveyard is exposed on all sides to attack, and former Muslim homes nearby are filling up with Serb refugees from Sarajevo.
Lt. Col. Tony Cucolo, commander of the U.S. Army’s Task Force 3/5, which controls the area, said he worked with the Serb police and the U.N.-run international police to prepare for the visit. Sentries were placed in more vital places and police barricades were set out of stone-throwing range, said Cucolo, of Houston, Texas.
Jasna Atic, 41, head of the Organization of Muslims Wanting to Return to Brcko, praised Zarko Cosic, the Brcko police chief. “One day he will surely be killed by (Bosnian Serb leader Radovan) Karadzic because he arranged for this visit,” said Ms. Atic.
The 49 Muslim visitors fanned out through the high grass and weeds of the cemetery on both sides of the street near the former front line, making futile attempts to clean up graves and right toppled gravestones. Seherezada Mujkic, 41, knelt and cried over the grave of her daughter, Edina. The girl was 17 in 1992, when she was killed by a shell as she stepped onto the balcony of her family’s apartment. “Exactly three years, six months and 27 days I haven’t been able to come to the grave of my daughter,” Mrs. Mujkic said.
Hajrudin Polic, 49, tried to pull weeds from his father’s grave, but gave up and just prayed, tears in his eyes.
Further west Thursday, a group of Roman Catholic Bosnian Croats from Gradacac made a peaceful visit into nearby Serb territory, the U.S. military said. The first peaceful visit by any large group to Serb-held land occurred last Sunday, when Bosnian Croats visited a remote cemetery in northern Bosnia. |
Berserkistan, May 13 · Peaceful Visit to Family Graves by Bosnian Croats
Berserkistan, May 10 · Serbs Slammed Over Attack on Refugees, Police, Media
Berserkistan, May 9 · Serbs Attack UN and Media Accompanying Muslims
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