The Calender of Death

Intervention, Mortars, Death

The beginning of the third year of war in the former Yugoslavia was marked with scenarios for a military intervention which were presented in the Western press in a form of "secret plans." American Generals Powel and Shalikashvili considered and launched into the public the so-called flexible approach: annihilation of air-fields used to violate the no-fly ban, arming of Muslim forces and creating "safe havens." No one was frightened. No one took them seriously. Sarajevo, covered with ice and snow, continued to be shelled and snipers wiped its citizens queuing for bread and water. Right before Orthodox Christmas at the Old People's Home in Nedzarici 7 women and 3 men died of disease, cold and hunger in the course of 36 hours.

New York, Geneva, Skelani

After New York, bargaining over conditions for making peace in Bosnia-Herzegovina moved to Geneva. The Vance-Owen plan was on the negotiating table. Radovan Karadzic, the Bosnian Serb leader, organized the first of his assembly sessions, which later became traditional. He had a problem making the MP's accept the constitutional principles. And then came darkness and fog: Muslim guerrillas attacked Skelane and apart from taking heavy casualties almost the entire population of the area fled. Four grenades fell on Bajina Basta - the first time since the beginning of the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina on the territory of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The Yugoslav Army (VJ) responded and "neutralized the enemy." Hundreds of victims were reported on both sides. At the same time, the first clashes between Muslims and Croats took place near Gornji Vakuf. All available weapons were used, villages were burnt, for the sake of higher political force, but the conflict between the allies was, nevertheless, hushed up.

The Maslenica Bridge

The war in Croatia, which had been "frozen" for a year, blazed up again on January 22. Croatia violated the cease-fire and forced the Krajina Army out of the part of Ravni Kotari. Zagreb had a goal to secure the construction of the bridge in the area of Maslenica and thus connect Dalmatia with the rest of the country. Volunteer led by Zeljko Raznatovic-Arkan and Captain Dragan arrived in Krajina as certain political currents in Croatia expressed their determination to "reach Knin" and it seemed that a new and total war is inevitable. However, the situation stabilized following a diplomatic storm. But, before that Croatian commandos ambushed 22 militiamen from Gracac on the pass of Mali Alan and Serb engineer officers mined the Peruca dam. Croatian mortars fired on Benkovac and Obrovac every day and Serb artillery on Zadar and Sibenik. The front lines remained unchanged and such situation, accompanied with varying intensity of fighting, has been maintained to this vary day. The figures about the killed, wounded, and expelled on both sides have are primarily used for propaganda purposes.

Expulsion of Muslims

While Franjo Tudjman, the President of Croatia, profited from the Maslenica action in the local elections in Croatia, Krajina was rocked by yet another dispute among its leaders (it was revealed that Goran Hadzic, the President of the Republic of Serb Krajina was dealing with timber), Bozidar Vucurevic, the master of Trebinje (East Herzegovina), expelled the local Muslims. This round of ethnic cleansing would not have attracted attention, had not the people in question been active soldiers in the Serbian army. 4,000 Muslims left the town after a number of mines were set off, their flats broken into and looted, and murders committed. They sold their property for next to nothing or donated it for "humanitarian purposes." Pensioner Smajo Cerimagic got a permission from Vucurevic to take his cassette player and a telephone. The cassette player because he loved listening to music and the telephone to inform Vucurevic where he had moved and how he was.

Rounding off the Territory

Meanwhile, General Ratko Mladic, the Commander of the Bosnian Serb Army, successfully rounded off the territory of the Serb Republic in Bosnia. Several Muslim enclaves in Eastern Bosnia: Zepa, Cerska, Gorazde, Sapna and Srebrenica was what had yet to be "liberated." And it was these enclaves that the Americans were helping: they dropped containers with humanitarian relief from C-130 Hercules aircraft at the beginning of March. However, General Mladic did not sit still. At first he seized Konjevic Polje and then approached Cerska (it bothered him because of the Zvornik-Pale road), the circle around the near-by enclaves tightened as well. After General Philip Morillon, the Commander of U.N. forces in Bosnia-Herzegovina, got personally witnessed the situation in Srebrenica ("the mediaeval inferno"), even though exposed to Mladic's artillery and after painful haggling, UNPROFOR forces entered these areas and they survived "for the time being." At the same time, a group of "Serbian Chetniks" from Bosnia-Herzegovina, as they presented themselves, abducted some 20 citizens of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from the train on the Belgrade-Bar rail-road line at the railway station in Strpci. All abducted citizens were Muslims, except for one Croat, and their fate is still unknown.

Presidents in Pale

In mid April the Security Council of the United Nations gave an ultimatum to Bosnian Serbs to sign the Vance-Owen plan in ten days' time or else the sanctions against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia will be tightened. It was believed that this was the last instance of pressure by non-military means, while the ghost of military intervention hung in the air. Slobodan Milosevic, the President of Serbia, Dobrica Cosic, the President of Yugoslavia, Momir Bulatovic, the President of Montenegro, with the help of Konstantin Mitsotakic, the Prime Minister of Greece, joined their forces trying to force Karadzic into signing the plan. However, the leader of the Bosnian Serbs coldly said "no". Chief-of-Staff of the Bosnian Serb Army Manojlo Milovanovic made an additional threat saying that he would not stop the tanks "until the last Serb on the planet is liberated" and Voivoda Seselj (Vojislav, the leader of the Serbian Radical Party) threatened to bomb Italy. Many people expected to see NATO bombers over Bosnia. However, the only thing that happened was the break-out of the open war between Muslims and Croats.

Clashes between Croats and Muslims

The clashes between the Army of Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Croatian Defense Council (HVO) erupted in Central Bosnia, which is the area they were supposed to be sharing according to the Vance-Owen plan. Since the plan was definitely doomed after the Serbian refusal both sides tried to take as much territory as possible. There are several reasons for this: Muslims were unable to regain the territories under Serb control and they needed access to the sea. Croats, under the leadership of Mate Boban, had exactly the same attitude towards Bosnia-Herzegovina as a unitary state like Serbs so they tried to form their own state wherever they had their units. Severe clashes broke out around Busovaca, Kiseljak, Travnik, Gornji Vakuf and Mostar. It was a surprise to the Army of Bosnia-Herzegovina, that it proved superior, more efficient and better motivated, although it was less armed. It threatened to push HVO out of Central Bosnia. Ethnic cleansing, destruction of towns and villages, concentration camps such Dretelj near Mostar run by HVO, massacres of civilians and the like, made all warring factions in B-H appear to be the same.

The Return of Fikret Abdic

The position of UNPROFOR in the newly-created situation was completely mad. After British soldiers killed three HVO members who had attacked a humanitarian convoy it seemed that blue helmets would soon become one of the warring factions. The International Committee of the Red Cross warned that the people of Mostar, Srebrenica and Gornji Vakuf are on the verge of acute thirst. On the other hand, obstructing the passage of humanitarian relief became yet another weapon used by all warring sides. Serbs and Croats once again discovered the importance of "brotherhood and unity" in Central Bosnia as they fought together against Muslims under the slogan "For home, for king, forward!" After a year long break Fikret Abdic from Velika Kladusa, who had almost been forgotten, made a come-back to high politics.

The Fallen Bridges

The world saw the pictures of camps where HVO kept Muslims and the destruction of Mostar outdid everything previously seen. HVO Commander, General Slobodan Praljak, seemed to have beaten his predecessor General Momcilo Perisic. The rating of Croatia in the eyes of the international public plummeted, as she openly sponsored Mate Boban, and it surprisingly became the same as Serbia's. Croatian President Franjo Tudjman crossed the pontoon bridge in the Maslenica area with great pomp and clearly showed that he had no intention to respect the Erdut agreement, at least not in the form it had been signed, although the whole ceremony was held only thanks to the very same accord. Croatian military failed to withdraw from Ravni Kotari ("pink zones") and Krajina's gunmen partially sank the bridge as they had promised. Reciprocal shelling ensued: Karlovac for Korenica, Gospic for Teslingrad. The conflict was somehow localized due to international pressure, the bridge was repaired, but, tensions of further letting of blood remained.

No Time to Lose

General Mladic did not waste time. He seized Mount Igman and Mount Bjelasnica. He was thus in a situation to take exhausted Sarajevo. Americans feigned a fit and made serious threats to bomb Serb positions unless Serbs withdrew. However, an arrangement was made: Mladic withdrew with a heavy heart and U.N. forces replaced his troops. This way he retained his strategic advantage and a new plan was the next thing on the agenda of the negotiations in Geneva: a final partition of B-H. Everybody was for, only Muslims were against. War profiteers on all three sides opposed it. They want to suck out the last reserves of their peoples in a mafioso-vampire fashion.

September 1993

What was to be known as "September '93" began in Banjaluka. Members of 16th Banjaluka Armored Brigade took the town demanding settling of accounts with "the new manipulators" and war profiteers. A Crisis Headquarters was formed and its members conducted negotiations with Karadzic for almost seven days. It is not known what they were really promised but the Crisis Committee eventually dismissed itself after it had been announced that the authorities of the Serb Republic in Bosnia would take care of the social status of soldiers. Those leaders of the rebellion who were not satisfied with phrases offered to them, such as Ostoja Zec, were immediately arrested, and Karadzic stated that the future of his state lay with rich people. The same lot whom Zec and his fellows arrested because of war profiteering.

Tit for Tat

Yet another letting of blood between Croatia and Krajina took place while the action in Banjaluka was still underway. In a surprise attack the Croatian Army seized three villages near Gospic (Citluk, Pocitelj and Divoselo). Although Zagreb claimed that the goal of this offensive was to throw off the Serb artillery from Gospic, it was soon proved that there was little to justify this. In any case, in several days the Krajina Army shelled Karlovac, Sisak, Zadar and other places, shot down one Croatian MIG-21, launched several projectiles on Samobor, one "Frog-7" rocket on the Zagreb suburb of Lucko. The Croatian Army shelled Korenica, Gracac, Teslingrad, Vojnic...Everything ended with a Croat withdrawal from the villages that had been razed to the ground. UNPROFOR forces took over finding 50 corpses of Serb civilians and fighters. Traces of torture were on some of them.

Muslims Vs Muslims

Finally, Fikret Abdic and Alija Izetbegovic saw to it that the war is not waged only between the members of different nationalities. Abdic lost the nerve when Izetbegovic refused to accept the partition of Bosnia-Herzegovina, such as was drawn by Serbs and Croats, and declared the Autonomous Province of Western Bosnia and signed a truce with Karadzic and Boban. Sarajevo branded him outlaw and traitor, and the Fifth Corps of the Army of B-H came into conflict with Abdic's armed formations in Cazin Krajina. The wheel of fortune is spinning in their war but neither side has made a significant advance. However, there are rumors that the soldiers from Western Bosnian are receiving brotherly help from their fellow fighters from the Bosnian Serb Army.

What is one to say in the end? Bosnian Serbs blew up the Sahat Tower and Bosnian Croats destroyed the Old Bridge in Mostar. Other towns are still bleeding. Massacres against civilians and prisoners of war have become a specialty of the warring factions. Millions of refugees are wandering throughout the world with no hope of a return. Those who have stayed behind are slowly dying of hunger, cold, shells and bullets. Happy New Year!