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Last Serb Region in Croatia Is Demilitarized
But the disarmament has heightened Serb residents’ fear of life under Croatian authority. More than 200,000 people fled Croatian offensives against other Serb-held regions last summer -- and most residents of eastern Croatia are Serb refugees from those battles. The Serbs had 30 days to move heavy weapons to storage sites, hand over small arms to the United Nations and disarm their paramilitary troops.
"Everything has gone smoothly," said Douglas Coffman, a U.N spokesman in Vukovar, minutes before the noon deadline. He said U.N. troops would confiscate any weapons found after that time. The United Nations will conduct a four-day inspection of Serb army sites, but it expects to find full compliance with the demilitarization, Coffman said.
In a Serb army compound a few yards away from the U.N headquarters in Vukovar, soldiers were turning in automatic rifles. "What can I tell you? Ask the politicians," said one soldier as he exited, voicing the disappointment and resignation visible on the faces of most former fighters. The soldier didn’t give his name.
Slavko Baric, a Croatian general, hailed the operation, saying "there are no obstacles for establishment of Croatian authority in those areas." Armed and supported by the Serb-dominated Yugoslav army, Croatia’s Serbs rebelled against the government in 1991, triggering a six-month war and establishing their rule over one-third of Croatia’s territory.
The fiercest battle in the war, which claimed more than 10,000 victims, was fought here in Vukovar. Relentless shelling by the Yugoslav army smashed into rubble the once picturesque town on the Danube River. Croatia recaptured most of the Serb-held territories in two offensives last year, and Serbs in eastern Croatia agreed to gradually restore government control and allow the return of Croat refugees expelled in 1991.
Last year’s peace accord for eastern Croatia established a year-long transition during which refugees are to return and confidence-building measures are to be put in place -- including a joint Serb-Croat police force -- under international supervision.
But the prospect of Croatian rule has already sent Serb refugees in the region fleeing -- despite international assurances of their safety. Renata Simendic, 35, said she and her family "would stay if nobody mistreated us. But I fear the moment when I will see Croat soldiers and policemen in the town," she said.
The local Serb assembly in eastern Croatia on Thursday asked the United Nations to extend its peacekeeping mandate until Jan. 15, 1998 -- a year beyond the current plan. In the declaration, the assembly also asked for special status for the region, "characteristic of the regions within European union," Yugoslavia’s state-run Tanjug news agency reported.
Croatian and international officials have dismissed Serb officials’ earlier requests for autonomy, and the U.N.’s Coffman called them "not realistic." Still, Serb residents of Vukovar were holding out hope. "If only they would let us keep our own local authorities," said 30-year-old Djurdja Kocic, who fled to Vukovar from the Croatian town of Osijek in 1991, "then we would all stay." |
VUKOVAR, Croatia, June 20 (AP) -- Grim-faced soldiers in eastern Croatia grudgingly turned in their weapons and uniforms Thursday, completing a demilitarization of the country’s last Serb-controlled region. Disarming the Serb army is considered critical to reintegrating Croatia and to reestablishing civilian rule over the area Serb rebels held for almost five years.
Berserkistan, June 17 · Croatia Clarifies Serb Amnesty Law for Eastern Slavonia
Berserkistan, June 5 · Serbs in Eastern Slavonia Hand Over Their Weapons
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