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Bosnian Serbs Stone Muslim Women’s Bus
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina May 27, (AP) — A Bosnian Serb mob stoned a busload of Muslim women trying to plant a tree of peace in Serb-held territory where some of the worst war-time atrocities occurred, a NATO spokesman said Monday. Two of the women were slightly injured. The mob also attacked a NATO patrol and an observation post, forcing the foreign troops to withdraw “to prevent further confrontation,” Maj. Herve Gourmelon said. Later, armed men kept U.N. international police from entering the Prijedor police station to discuss the incident, he said.
It was the fifth time that Bosnian Serbs armed with sticks and rocks have prevented Muslim refugees from returning to their pre-war homes in the Prijedor area of northwestern Bosnia, despite the Dayton peace agreement that calls for free movement. Similar incidents — usually with Serbs as the aggressors — have occurred in other parts of Bosnia.
On Saturday, a Muslim women’s group called True Heart and Peace tried to cross the NATO-patrolled boundary line into nearby Kozarac to plant the tree, but Bosnian Serb police blocked them, Gourmelon said. The next morning, a busload of 44 women tried again and was again turned away by Bosnian Serb police. The bus made a third try hours later, accompanied by U.N. police, officials from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and Canadian soldiers in armored vehicles, Gourmelon said. After trying a different route to avoid Prijedor, the bus was stopped at another Serb checkpoint, Gourmelon said.
A crowd of about 250 Serbs gathered quickly, he said, with some carrying clubs and waving handguns. Some threw stones and hit the bus with their clubs, shattering glass that slightly injured two Muslim women, Gourmelon said. The NATO troops freed the bus of the mob, which hurled stones at a Canadian armored vehicle and attacked a NATO observation post, Gourmelon said.
Gourmelon said Prijedor’s mayor and Bosnian Serb police organized town residents for the blockade, and police closed cafes in the town “claiming that Muslims are coming.”
The Bosnian Serb news agency SRNA said international officials tried to “smuggle in” the Muslims as foreigners.
NATO forces filed a protest with Bosnian Serb officials in Prijedor over Sunday’s incident, Gourmelon said.
Prijedor and the surrounding area had some of the most notorious Serb-run prison camps when war erupted in 1992. Nearby Kozarac was crushed during the fighting; it now consists largely of the shells of homes blown up after Bosnian Serbs drove the Muslim and Croat inhabitants out.
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