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Bosnia Furious Over U.S. Handling of Zvornik 7
TUZLA, Bosnia-Herzegovina, May 18 (AP) — The news hit Biba Hasanovic hard. U.S. forces had handed her son and grandson over to Bosnian Serbs after they had avoided capture for 10 months. They were among the few men to have escaped alive after Serbs overran the Muslim enclave of Srebrenica last July. Around 8,000 other men vanished and are believed to have been killed. “Why did they hand them over to the Serbs?!” cried Mrs. Hasanovic, 68, on Saturday. “There’s no way I can understand that.”
Her son Muharem Hasanovic, 25, and six other men surfaced last week when they surrendered to U.S. forces in Bosnian Serb territory. Because they were armed, they were in violation of a Dayton peace accord ban on armed groups. The Army unit handed them over to Serb police, empowered under the Dayton accord to maintain order. Within hours the seven were in the Zvornik jail in eastern Bosnia being severely beaten, international officials said. The men said the police were trying to force them to confess to murdering Serbs.
The U.N. international police, who have been visiting the men daily, have said their conditions have improved greatly since they were transferred to the Bijeljina prison north of Zvornik in northeast Bosnia. But relatives of three of the men still can’t believe they evaded the Serbs for nearly a year only to be handed over to Serb police after their surrender.
“For 10 months my husband avoided capture by the Serbs, and now he is in their hands,” said Mrs. Hasanovic’s daughter-in-law, Mevlija, 22. “May God protect him.”
The families live in the Tuzla area, where they have occupied cramped refugee quarters since they arrived from Srebrenica last summer. All had previously gotten word that the men were alive and hiding in Serb territory. Since the capture, they or people they know have seen the men on television, and they have received handwritten messages containing intimate family details, delivered by the International Committee of the Red Cross. They said they have no doubt the men are their relatives.
“Day and night I have prayed for my husband to be alive, wherever he was,” said the younger Mrs. Hasanovic. “He’s so young, and he’s the father of our children.” She said she fainted when her sisters-in-law told her last Tuesday that they had seen her husband on Bosnian Serb TV. She said her joy that he was alive was mixed with anguish that the Serbs were accusing him of murder.
Another of the captives is Enver Harbas, 20, Biba Hasanovic’s grandson. Harbas’ mother, Muska Harbas, lives in a refugee center at Spionica, 25 miles north of Tuzla. “When I recognized his handwriting on the ICRC message ... I thought my heart would break,” said Mrs. Harbas. “I thank God that he is alive, but his life is worthless because he is in their (Serbs’) hands.”
Mrs. Harbas said people coming out of Serb territory had been saying for months that they had seen her son in the forest looking like a madman. “That was probably from poison and fear” she said, referring to Muslim rumors that Serbs had mixed in with people fleeing from Srebrenica and gave them bottled water laced with poison. “When I heard that he is alive and that he was in such a state, I thought I would go crazy, too,” she said.
Ibro Husic, 25, who also lives in the refugee center in Spionica, said he had heard that his 20-year-old brother Behudin had been wounded twice, first by a rifle bullet and then by a Serb who tried to cut his head off. “He escaped, but certainly with a scar on his throat,” said Husic, who hasn’t seen his brother since last July, and now must wait to see what the Serbs will do. “After so much suffering in trying to survive, IFOR handed them over into the Serbs’ hands,” Husic said, using the acronymn of the U.S.-led peace implementation force. “That is crazy.”
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Berserkistan, May 18 · Zvornik 7 Beaten in Serb Prison
Berserkistan, May 14 · Zvornik 7 Believed to be Srebrenica Refugees
Berserkistan, May 13 · U.S. Blundered Turning 7 Muslims Over to Serbs
Berserkistan, May 11 · Accused Muslim Soldiers Surrender to U.S. Troops
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