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Serbs Renew Attacks on Refugees Attempting to Return to Teslic
By Jovan Kovacic
"These incidents are yet another demonstration of the wall of hostility we are encountering in our efforts to repatriate refugees and bring the two communities together," he said. The latest blockade came less than 24 hours after hardline Bosnian Serb "vice-president" Biljana Plavsic promised that Serb authorities would fully honour the Dayton peace accord.
The Dayton deal, which ended 43-months of war in Bosnia last December, gives civilians the right to travel where they wish across former froorced from their homes by ethnic hate. But nationalist local authorities hblocked nearly all movement across inter-ethnic boundary lines and few refugeesrds Teslic, but when they arrived at a Polish NATO checkpoint they were told the bridge they intended to use had been blown-up overnight.
"They then boarded two buses and were met by the Teslic police chief. He escorted them for a while, then sped away just before they came upon a hostile crowd of Serbs. The stoning committee was armed with rocks and clubs, some of them drunk. Serb police came on the scene and said they could not control the crowd so the Croats found it prudent to return," Janowski said. "It was a debacle."
Bosnian Serb prime minister Gojko Klickovic had promised international mediator Carl Bildt the Teslic police chief would be dismissed after a wave of expulsions of Muslims from the area. A separate group of Serbs stoned 84 Muslims in two buses after they visited one village and were on their way to another. |
SARAJEVO, June 2 (Reuters) - Bosnian Serbs on Sunday stoned buses and blocked refugees trying to visit their former homes in yet another violation of the Dayton peace accord, a United Nations spokesman said. Serbs throwing stones prevented a group of Croats from reaching the central town of Teslic and stoned a further group of Muslims going to nearby villages, said Kris Janowski of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. Rocks and broken glass injured a number of people, Janowski added.
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OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina
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