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Serbs Stone Muslims, Croats Returning to Potocani
‘I don’t know about Geneva, but
As the buses approached the town, Serbs began to follow them. A thrown rock broke one bus window. Then, after NATO troops and Serb police had protected the Muslims as they visited a graveyard next to a destroyed mosque, a larger crowd gathered. They spat and cursed at the Muslims and then pelted the departing buses with more rocks and bricks, injuring several refugees.
The visit had been agreed to by both sides, the U.N. international police and the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.
More than 40 Bosnian Serb police officers from the nearby town of Doboj drew their weapons and cordoned off the buses in an effort to protect the Muslim passengers. Nordic soldiers of the NATO-led implementation force diverted the buses to safety.
"These Serbs are bad, they are stupid! This is also our land and we want to live here!" screamed one Muslim man, bleeding from a gash in his head. "The next time we come, we’ll come with guns."
A similar visit to the Bosnian Serb-controlled town of Teslic, from where about 100 non-Serbs have been expelled recently, also failed to get through. Some 200 Bosnian Croats aboard two buses were initially stopped because a bridge over the Usora River in Serb territory had been destroyed overnight, reportedly by Serbs opposed to the visit.
The two buses, escorted by Bosnian Serb police, UNHCR and U.N. police monitors, took an alternative route but were stopped again by a few dozen Serbs “waving clubs and flags,” said UNHCR spokesman Kris Janowski. The group decided to return to the nearby government-held town of Tesanj because of “the very, very hostile” crowd, Janowski said. “I don’t know about Geneva, but this is the harsh reality that we are facing on the ground here,” he said. |
POTOCANI, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — Two Serb mobs on Sunday turned back busloads of Muslim and Croat refugees who wanted to see their homes and family graves for the first time in four years. Several Muslims were injured in one incident when Serbs hurled rocks and bricks at the buses carrying about 100 Muslims trying to visit homes and relatives’ graves for the first time since being driven out in 1992. Previously some 3,600 Muslims lived in the area.
Berserkistan, June 2 · Serbs Renew Attacks on Refugees at Teslic
Berserkistan, June 1 · Steiner Asks Serbs to Halt Ethnic Cleansing in Teslic
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