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UN: Bosnia Doing Nothing About Assaults on Serbs
‘Families are being told they will be killed if they don't leave. We believe the Bosnian government is doing absolutely nothing to stop this harassment’
By Mark Heinrich
More than 50,000 Serbs fled the suburbs when they reverted to government rule last winter under the Dayton peace treaty. Some 8,000 stayed on assurances they would not face reprisals for the bloody siege of the capital.
The central government promised remaining Serbs they would be welcome in a multi-ethnic, reunified Bosnia it hoped to restore with Western help, despite the resistance of radical Serbs awarded 50 percent of the country under Dayton. But Serbs who stayed in the suburbs were swiftly subjected to violence and intimidation by vengeful returning Muslims -- former neighbours or war refugees from Serb-held territory.
U.N. police monitors protested repeatedly to the Bosnian government but the problem, after an apparent lull, has flared anew, a spokesman said. Alexander Ivanko of the International Police Task Force (IPTF) said Serb farm buildings were being burned down, families threatened with death and nights were plagued with gunfire intended to intimidate Serbs.
"Families are being told they will be killed if they don't leave. A number of families are coming to us asking for protection and support in evacuating them because their situation is getting unbearable," he said. "If the Bosnian government is truly dedicated to multi-ethnicity, as it says it is, they are really blowing their chances in (former) Serb Sarajevo with people being harassed and threatened on a daily basis. We believe the Bosnian government is doing absolutely nothing to stop this harassment."
Ivanko said a 37-year-old Serb woman was recently found dead in a pool of blood at her home in the suburb of Ilidza. In another suburb, he said, a Serbian Orthodox Christian church was torched and 67 Serb graves vandalised. Five Muslims were arrested, but immediately released.
Bosnian Interior Minister Avdo Hebib said on Wednesday he was generally satisfied with public safety in the suburbs
although "it could be better and we'll work in that direction."
A Western security official in Sarajevo who asked not to be named said the government's failure to rein in Muslims preying on Serbs reflected a desire to "see the ethnic balance changed in Sarajevo before the September elections." He told Reuterss that the government had moved 17,000 Muslim refugees from Serb-controlled eastern Bosnia into Sarajevo's suburban ring in the last four months alone.
Sarajevo, a tolerant haven of ethnic diversity before the 1992-95 war, has become a predominantly Muslim city as a result of an influx of rural Muslim refugees and an exodus of Serbs. |
SARAJEVO, July 17 (Reuters) - The United Nations on Wednesday described a fresh wave of assaults on minority Serbs in
Sarajevo's suburbs and said the mainly Muslim Bosnian government was "doing absolutely nothing" about it.
Violence is perpetrated by local thugs or refugees impoverished and embittered after being expelled en masse from their homes. Many loved ones were killed in Serb-held regions. Bosnian Muslim leaders insist lawlessness in the suburbs is nothing compared to the mass persecution of Muslims on Serb-held territory during the war. Muslims are still being evicted from the Serb entity from time to time. "Serbs in the suburbs do have difficulties, but here we have double standards on the part of the international community," Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic said last week.
Berserkistan, July 9 · Ethnic Hatred Jeopardizing Return of Refugees
Berserkistan, June 11 · Refugees Can’t Return Home, Frustrated West Waves Sanctions
Berserkistan, Mar 13 · Even Die-Hard Serbs are Now Fleeing Sarajevo Suburbs
Berserkistan, Mar 9 · Serbs Staying in Bosnia Beg NATO to Help End Looting, Arson
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