The Internal Exodus

At last year's celebration of the three centuries jubilee marking the Great Migration of Serbs, Slobodan Milosevic promised that there will be no more migrations - that an end has been put to the new migrations, "once and for all". Today there are half a million refugees trotting around Yugoslavia.

Until barely a month ago, the "official" data concerning the number of homeless was definitely used for propaganda purposes: "now you can see who is fleeing Croatia" (an additional argument: "the Croatians are not moving out of Serbia"). "The other side" was quickly tuned in: when the daily report of the Red Cross of Serbia reached the abominable figure of 50 000 refugees, the media hunger was satiated by the news that 200 Croatians have fled "the new Serbian Krajinas".

Such zeal on both sides resembles a boomerang throwing competition: who throws further will receive a fiercer blow. Right in his face. That is why they wanted the refugees to have the priority: women and children are scattered all around, while the media is promoting their ordeal; men between the ages of 16 to 60 are mercilessly being sent to the front: SAO Slavonija, Baranja and Western Srem have become notorious in forbidding the return to all those who do not have enough proof that they were "engaged in important business" at the time they were supposed to be fighting for "their homes". All such claims are being checked and confirmed by the police. This situation probably accounts for the fact that Baranja is emptied of its native population, if we do not take into account the seven thousand armed refugees from Western Slavonija. "In our state one in five is working whereas four are fighting", says Djordje Latas, who is currently a vice-president of the National Assembly of SAO Slavonia, Baranja and Western Srem, which "before the war" had 54 000 inhabitants, and has now been drastically reduced (around 15 000 Croatians and Hungarians have emigrated; there are no data concerning the number of Serbian refugees). The comparisons with Vukovar are highly illuminating: out of the population of 44 000, around 3 000 people who are left have nowhere to go.

Croatia has similar "counterproductive" problems with "its" refugees. Branimir Glavas, who is presently acting as the defence commander of Osijek, is calling upon all the citizens, Serbs included, to go back to their "hearths" with the promise that "nothing will happen to them: on the contrary, they would get jobs". The Croatian press has appealed to 35 000 of the ones who have fled to Slovenia in an attempt to escape mobilization.

The above data point to one thing: the refugees leave behind them a desolate place. Vukovar is the best example that the "liberated" zones are only good for vultures. The people who have had to leave their flats, streets and villages, although they are happy to have survived, have kept their senses as well: the refugees from Slavonia are reluctant to occupy the houses and the estates of strangers, and they clearly see that their Serbian hosts are hospitable but poor.

"Around half a million", is the official figure of the current number of homeless in Yugoslavia. Their destination (see map) is a little more precise, owing solely to the fact that everyone is fleeing the war-torn regions: the Croatians from Dubrovnik are escaping to Western Herzegovina and the Northern part of the coast, the Croatians from Western Slavonia are heading towards Zagreb, Zagorje and the Northern part of the coast, from Baranja and Vojvodina to Hungary. The Croatians from Croatia are leaving for Slovenia and abroad, the Serbs from "krajinas" to Bosnia and Serbia, the Serbs from Slavonia to Serbia and abroad.

At least 35 000 Croatians are currently staying in Slovenia, more than 100 000 have moved to "inner Croatia", and between 35 000 and 40 000 citizens of unknown nationality are currently staying in Hungary. The number of young men who have crossed over from the Croatian coast to the Italian coast is as yet unknown; the estimates point to the number of 10 000, 20 000 or more illegal "tourists". The unconfirmed data concerning the "conscripts" who have found refuge in Western Europe has reached the figure of 100 000 "Croatians" and 150 000 "Serbs". The quotation marks were put here since their homeless status and their desolation makes then equal. The official data indicates that there are over 60 000 refugees currently staying in Bosnia and Herzegovina and 143 000 refugees from Croatia who are presently living in Serbia.

All these estimations are dubious, not because they were "overrated" but because they could turn out to be underrated. For example, Belgrade has around 50 000 registered refugees, whereas the sources in the field have found that the accurate figure is twice the estimated one.

None of the official estimates account for the ever-increasing group of people described as "not at home". It is thought that there are 50 000 of those in Serbia - the ones who are never at home when the postman appears or the telephone rings. This estimate is definitely underrated compared to the official data given by the Serbian defence minister deputy that as many as 10 000 people are to be prosecuted at present.

The Yugoslav refugees of whatever nationality have been condemned to enter the next century and the one after that as barefoot and homeless wanderers.