Through Swamps and Underbrush

The exodus of Serbs from Western Slavonija has been repeated. Columns of refugees filled the road from Bosanska Gradiska to Banja Luka, just like in December 1991.

Some 400 refugees from Slavonija found salvation in Banja Luka, while around 5,000 people crossed the Sava River. Most of them are in Gradiska, Nova Topola, Aleksandrovac and Laktasi. They are the ones who don't have anyone and have to accept "organized accommodation." It is assumed that there are just as many "unregistered" refugees who are staying with relatives and friends. They all need medicine, antibiotics and antipyretics. There is not sufficient powdered milk for babies. There are no blankets, not enough food, there is nothing - and no hope of returning.

None can explain how it happened that the Croatian army managed to take over Western Slavonija in only 36 hours, i.e. in that which they didn't manage three years ago. "They wouldn't have succeeded then or now, we were betrayed both times", said an old man. The people asked what paper we represented, and it was difficult to persuade them to give their names when they heard it concerned "those from across the Drina River".

Everybody repeats the word "betrayal" and all ask why no help came from Belgrade and those who liked to have their photographs taken in these parts earlier. Defenders of the Serbian cause, Budimir Kosutic, or General Pekic are not to be found in the refugee camps. They are all far away now, and the better for them. When he came to visit Nova Topola RSK President Milan Martic was met with catcalls and the people shouted: "Traitor, thief, shame on you..."

"This is the end of the scenario on the surrender of Western Slavonija, thought up in Karadjordjevo in March 1991", said former Information Minister in the RSK Government Dusan Ecimovic, talking to VREME. Ecimovic who comes from Okucani managed to reach Banja Luka on time. "It's all clear: they are superior, better armed and organized - while our side is surprised, and there's no help from anywhere. When the highway was closed the first time, Martic and Celektic were here three days, they visited everybody, talked, made promises, threatened, and this is what we've lived to see in the end. If this had been agreed on earlier, if it had been tried several times and if there really wasn't any other way out, the people should have been told on time what was being prepared, so they could flee or prepare for their fate. This way several hundred soldiers and civilians got killed, as far we know. Who took the right to sacrifice all those people?"

It is difficult to find refugees from Slavonija who are prepared to give their names, and even more difficult to listen to their clear and chronological telling of what happened in the past few days. Jelena Radosevic is a physical therapist from Podravska Slatina, and an exception to the rule. Three years ago she fled from Podravska Slatina and settled in Okucani. She is now in (former Bosnian) Gradiska, waiting to hear news of the people cut off in Pakrac. The matter concerns several hundred soldiers and nearly 5,000 civilians who didn't manage to break through the encirclement. All the leading municipality figures remained there - President of the Municipality Executive Board Obrad Ivanovic, vice-president Veljko Dzakula, municipality president Miroslav Grozdanic, secretary Savo Radosevic, Mladen Kulic... "Most" group volunteer Branka Nenadovic from Belgrade is trapped somewhere in the hills around Pakrac. She worked with the poetry and painting workshops which helped the children of Pakrac overcome their war traumas. In short, most of the inhabitants of Pakrac are cut off.

Jelena Radosevic speaks calmly. She starts crying when she remembers that her notes on the exodus of Slavonian Serbs in late 1991 have remained in Pakrac. She said she would write about it all over again.

"I was in Gradiska for treatment", said Jelena Radosevic. "On Monday 1 May, early in the morning, we heard detonations. I thought that there were conflicts in Bosnia, but I quickly realized that the bombing of Okucani had started. Around 7:30 the first wounded men started arriving from Stara Gradiska and Okucani. Stara Gradiska came in for heavy shelling. I saw them bring in two dead children. All patients who could walk were immediately discharged, and adaptation to war conditions started, a helicopter from Banja Luka brought in the first shipment of wounded, then the surgical teams arrived... there was shooting until 12:30; planes flew over the city twice."

Jelena joined the medical corps and went to Okucani at 14:30.

We went past a long column of vehicles, it was just like in 1991, there were many of them on the road. Okucani was in a panic, some people were packing, others didn't know what to do -chaos. I found two friends. They told me that Pakrac had been attacked in the morning, that one woman had died and that there were several wounded. They went off to Pakrac to help with the defence. We agreed to wait for them at the Okucani Out Patients' Clinic, but the order came through at 21:00 to evacuate and report to the Command in Stara Gradiska. We went off, but were met with gunfire before Nova Varos - the Croats had blocked the road to Gradiska. There were three of us in the car: a woman, a young man and me. The youth was there to protect us. We jumped out of the car and hid in a demolished house with the idea of circumventing the blockade and making our way through to the Sava River. The gunfire was terrible, we walked, crawled and crossed a canal and got lost."

We spent a sleepless night in some bushes in the rain.

"In the morning of 2 May, at about 4:45 we heard tanks and heavy shelling which lasted until 9:00," said Jelena Radosevic. "The sun came up in the meantime, and we realized that we'd been going round in circles and that we were still close to Nova Varos.. Wet and dripping we went into the woods and by a dirt road reached the village of Gredjani. The cattle, pigs and poultry were on the road. Just crazed animals and a few old people. We decided to return to Okucani, but a tractor driver we met on the road told us that the Croats were in the town. We couldn't believe it. We got onto the tractor and via Jablanac (the bridge near Jasenovac and the crossing at Mlaka were already taken by the Croats) crossed the Sava River.

We hitch-hiked to Gradiska and then learned that Pakrac was encircled."

Jelena Radosevic told VREME that she assumed that the civilians in Pakrac had tried to get out, but after coming up against a Croatian blockade near Bijela Stijena between Pakrac and Okucani, they returned to the hills around Pakrac. Her anger is very precisely directed:

"The Croats didn't surprise me but those we trusted. I am disappointed in the army, in the 18th corps of the Krajina Serb Army commander Laza Babic, in Milan Martic and the entire leadership in Knin. I survived the withdrawal once and didn't believe that it could happen again, but..."

The besieged Serbs near Pakrac started surrendering their heavy arms at the time this text was being written. UNPROFOR calls it "demobilization", while the Croats guarantee the safety of the refugees and a free return to their homes which are now in Republic of Croatia territory, or a free passage to Gradiska and Bosnian Serb Republic, under the sponsorship of the UNHCR and UN forces, through the Pakrac-Okucani-Gradiska corridor.