Men Hunt

First Story: Late on the night of Sunday-Monday, two young men from the Krajina (RSK) were woken up by banging on the door of their small rented apartment.

"Open up, police!"

They decided, signaling each other silently, that they weren't at home. The banging finally stopped. Then one of them found himself facing a flashlight through the ground floor window.

"There you are. Open up or I'll break everything."

When the door finally opened, the policeman asked to see their ID. They handed over papers that showed their address as the previous apartment they rented. The policeman wasn't at all happy and he ordered them to get the address changed because he'll be back to check. When he left, the two young men breathed a sigh of relief and went back to bed.

At 4:00 a.m. there was more banging on their door and more flashlights. The Serbian police was at the door along with RSK army officials carrying draft notices. They handed them their call up papers, gave them a few minutes to get dressed and crammed them into a bus where some 10 other terrified young Krajina men were seated.

***

In Belgrade's Bulevar Revolucije, on Monday around noon, two civilians approached a middle aged man selling cigarettes on the street. They asked him the price. When he replied with a Bosnian accent they asked to see his papers. The street vendor asked who they were and they produced Bijeljina military police identity cards. They grabbed his papers and led him off own the street. Another vendor who saw the scene from about 10 meters away ran down the street leaving his cigarettes behind.

***

Tuesday evening. A student enters a dormitory on Belgrade's campus. The door is blocked by police and a student official. They're identifying everyone. Since his documents show that he's originally from the Krajina they took him aside to a group just like him. They made a list of names. They were allowed to go back to their rooms to get their clothes and documents. Then they were taken to the military and police building in Volga street. There they were allowed one phone call. The student managed to convince the Krajina military police that he's a regular student and exempt from mobilization. They let him go. The next day he told his friends he wasn't even allowed "to take a piss without the police".

These are just three of a number of stories that reached VREME last week. There's more: a young man from northern Bosnia who lives with his grandmother in Belgrade had the police brought to his door by a neighbor who wants the grandmother to move into an old folks' home and sell the apartment; another man, born and raised in Belgrade, who was driving a car with Vukovar plates when he was stopped by a routine police roadblock, managed to contact his family from Plitvice two days after he disappeared. He phoned from Plitvice. Momcilo Vuksa, who fled Zagreb in 1991, was stopped on Tuesday at the checkpoint near Surcin and taken to Volga street. His Serbian citizenship didn't help him nor his hernia and ulcers. In Kikinda, Nasa Borba reported, the police took three young RSK men away from a graduation party in the Narvik hotel while their friends watched; the high school principal later commended the police for their efficiency.

The job has just begun it seems. Throughout Serbia the police from all Serb lands are arresting men originally from outside the FRY, concentrating them in Volga street, the Bubanj Potok barracks and Sremska Mitrovica and sending them to the front in Rumatrans and RSK army busses. They grab them from apartments, refugee camps, jobs and the streets, regardless of whether they're refugees, illegal aliens or people who have been citizens of Serbia for years. No one who fits into that category has had a good night's sleep and they don't sleep at home. The most worrying thing is that few people care about the evident, mass violations of the law and constitution. "Only the Serbian and Yugoslav police have the right to detain people," lawyer Rade Mikjelj told VREME. "From a legal point of view, the RSK and Bosnian Serb (RS) police are the same as the Austrian police for example and don't have the right to ask for identification or detain anyone on the territory of Serbia, not even illegal aliens from Krajina. That's a case of illegal detention which is a crime ."

When it comes to refugees the law is clear: refugees are subject to military obligations but only on the territory of Serbia (although even that is contrary to international conventions which Yugoslavia signed). In the case of people with citizenship, Mikjelj said, the constitution has been violated since it explicitly bans the extradition of FRY citizens to the organs of other states.

The hunt for Krajina cannon fodder in Serbia was indicated in conclusions by the RSK parliament session in Knin on May 29. Deputies unanimously agreed to ask the Belgrade and Podgorica authorities to "immediately hand over deserters from the Krajina", i.e. "to turn them over to the disposal of the RSK military authorities".

Confirmation that the decision was not taken accidentally is seen by many in the form of Radmilo Bogdanovic, chairman of the FRY parliament board for relations with Serbs outside Serbia. Bogdanovic was at the previous RSK parliament session in Borovo Selo. He said then that the fate of the people in the RSK and RS are an integral part of Serbia's concern, whatever that means. Finally, the newly appointed RSK army commander, general Mile Mrksic, ordered a reorganization of the army and declared the start of a fierce fight against "trade with the enemy" and demanded the return of deserters. Then the hunt began.

Informal sources reported that the hunt is a joint operation by the Serbian and RSK police and RSK army officials. It's based on lists of anyone who was ever entered into army lists on Krajina territory and then ended up in the FRY. Refugees, people who lost refugee status, citizens with ID documents issued in Serbia... As far as we know they're also grabbing anyone who isn't registered anywhere.

The operation, unlike similar ones in the past few years, has no deadline. On the Krajina side the main organizer is Slobodan Peric, a leader of the SDS party and internal affairs minister in the Mikelic and probably the incoming Babic governments.

Our sources reported that the lists include 18,000 names but assume that the hunters would be happy with 6-7,000 to start with. They said the RSK authorities are especially interested in prominent former Krajina residents (doctors, lawyers and such) former officials and public figures. Their goal is a demonstration of unity and restoring order. Men, no matter what their age, are not allowed out of the RSK.

VREME sources said some 2,000 deserters have already reached the RSK. The oldest was born in 1950, the youngest in 1974. After getting them together in barracks in Belgrade, they're taken to Sremska Mitrovica and then by bus (Serbian and RSK plates) via Sremska Raca to the RSK army base at Zeljava (former airport bear Bihac). From there they get transfers to combat units. The sources said the idea is to send them for five months of training at Slunj once the numbers are big enough and later to group them throughout the RSK as regulars with an unlimited period of service. Some say they'll be in units similar to punitive battalions where deserters would be given the chance to redeem themselves for causing Martic concern that they haven't been dying for four years.

Serbians who went through something similar in 1991 don't seem to be too concerned and some are even gloating openly.

Four days into the hunt for the deserters and not one political party spoke up while the state media are keeping quiet as usual. Only the Center for Anti-War Activities sent an open letter to presidents Lilic and Milosevic, prime ministers Kontic and Marjanovic demanding an explanation but without much hope of getting one. The UNHCR office in Belgrade said an average of 50 people a day contact them asking for any kind of help and protection. The only thing UNHCR could do is protest to the RSK bureau in Belgrade and voice concern to the FRY authorities. Both were taken into consideration and that was that.

Buba Morina, Serbia's refugee commissioner, said she had no information about the mobilization although she had heard that "they took away some lad who was selling ice cream on the street". "No one contacted us or consulted us, nor do we have any responsibility for these events," she said decisively and denied that the police got the names and addresses of refugees from the commissariat. "No one asked us for information on refugees, nor can anyone provide that information without my knowledge. Obviously there are people in this city who know where people go." Morina and several other commissariat officials held posts in the state security service once and they probably know what they're saying. Less than a month ago Morina told VREME that her commissariat "cooperates with the police and many other republican and federal ministries".

Morina's aide, Vladimir Curguz, said they "did nothing to endanger the status rights of refugees in the FRY. I contacted the authorities and was told that this is not a mobilization but a solution to the issue of people who are in Serbia illegally and are a problem for Serbia". When the commissariat said refugees were being taken, the "competent authorities" replied: "What're you complaining about, you keep saying there are too many refugees and that you can't feed them all". Curguz would not specify the competent authorities, but commissariat sources discreetly indicated Radovan Pankov, minister for relations with Serbs outside Serbia. No one in that ministry would, or could not, talk to VREME.

The question now is why official Belgrade decided to hand over everyone who is following the official line defined in Belgrade by not fighting in Martic's army. We know that "peace has no alternative" and all problems should be solved "through a dialogue between Knin and Zagreb". If Martic wants to talk it isn't clear why Milosevic, who publicly does everything to achieve peace, is strengthening his hand by deporting men who won't fight.

There are several rumors. The most frequent is that it's a trade of the UN hostages for deserters. That's hard to believe since the hostages were taken by the Bosnian Serbs whose deserters are being hunted only sporadically. The second assumption is that a large-scale Serb counteroffensive is being prepared against Bihac (that's why the deserters are being taken to Zeljava) in response to the offensives they suffered in the past few months. Serbia couldn't but meet the needs of the militarily endangered Serbs across the Drina; since it can't help directly because of the international community at least she'll send the men they need. But many voiced skepticism over the combat readiness of men mobilized like that and added that the only way they'll fight is if "loyal" units are behind them with rifles ready.

The third, most serious assumption, is that Milosevic understands that the only way he can continue being an "unavoidable factor of peace and stability" is if there are Serbs across the Drina.

If the current trend of migration from those Serb lands continues peace mongering is pointless. So the Serbs from west of the Drina have to go back, get rifles and serve as the cheapest cannon fodder for political deals and concessions. The forced mobilization will satisfy local extremists and the families of the mobilized men are expected to follow them sooner or later. So it's a kind of ethnic cleansing, this time among the Serbs.

The constitution and law, international conventions, obviously mean nothing.

The hypocrisy was perhaps best portrayed in a speech by Branislav Ivkovic, vice-chairman of the SPS Belgrade board and republican minister. He told an SPS tribunal that: "hundreds of thousands of refugees of all nationalities, fleeing from the war and destruction, found refuge here. We expect them not to support the people who would return them to war and expect them not to become the army of self-proclaimed Vojvodas."