Legend of the Fall

Friday

After the fall of western Slavonia and the Croatian conquests of Glamoc, Grahovo and the strategically important cites on Mount Dinara, military and political analysts as well as the "common people", stopped wondering if there will be an all out attack on Krajina by the Croatian Army, and began wondering when it is likely to begin. Fears grew at the beginning of August when general mobilization was declared in Croatia and around 100,000 troops were placed at the border with Krajina. The announcement of talks between delegations from Krajina and Croatia which were expected to take place in Geneve, raised some hope that the conflict will be postponed or even avoided. On Friday morning, August 4, an all out attack on Krajina began.

On the first day reports from Krajina were inconsistent. Around two thousand grenades fell on Knin while Petrinja, Glina, Benkovac, Obrovac, Korenica and Gracac - practically all larger towns in Krajina, also suffered heavy shellings. The commander of the Krajina army, general Mile Mrksic announced that the Krajina army (SVK) is holding its positions and that "not a single town, or even village" was captured by the Croats. Similar thing was said by Milan Martic, while the regime controlled media in Serbia reported heavy losses suffered by the Croats. News agencies on the other hand reported that Petrinja fell to the Croats, but the news was subsequently denied. The federal government "condemned the most recent Croatian aggression against the Serbian people in the Republic of Krajina (RSK)".

Saturday

Around noon, on Saturday, August 5, Croats captured Knin and raised a 20 metres long flag on the Knin castle. Other towns then fell, one after the other. The Krajina army was in disarray, weapons were being abandoned and an organized retreat soon developed into a desperate flight. "Politika" reported the case of a soldier from Kninsko Polje who was given leave "in order to have a bath", immediately prior to the attack, crammed his whole village (40 people) in a large truck and drove them to Belgrade. The only person left behind was the driver's 63 year old father who decided to take a riffle and fight for as long as he can before burning his house and fleeing. Tens of thousands of refugees were instantly on their way to the Republic of Srpska (RS) and Serbia: a mixture of soldiers and civilians, tractors and cars, coaches, carts and bicycles. There were no expensive cars in the convoy: the rich left Krajina long time ago. No one knows where Milan Martic is, or where the military command was transferred. The only obvious thing is that Karadzic's attempt to demote general Mladic into a coordinator of unified defence or RS and RSK failed: Mladic refused to accept the new post as long as "Serbian fighters and the people express their support for him" and until the demotion is performed according to the Constitution. On the following day, Mladic received support from all the Bosnian Serb army (VRS) generals, while Karadzic received support from the parliament on Mount Jahorina. The increasingly bad news from Krajina continued to reach the independent media in Belgrade, and on Saturday a rally organized by the Association of Serbs from Krajina was held at Trg Republike. Around a thousand people gathered, without any technical equipment, loud speakers etc. while the speakers, without any order and without introducing themselves, stepped out of the mass and climbed on the flower beds to address the rally. Slogans "treason, treason" were chanted, even the traffic was stopped for a short while in front of the National theater. A group of most persistent demonstrators spent the night outside the Federal parliament building. A few dozen refugees who refused to be moved to designated refugee centres spent the night in the Red cross headquarters in 19 Simina Street.

Sunday

On Sunday, 6. August, it was clear to everyone that Krajina has fallen. SVK offered resistance only in the region of Kordun and parts of Banija. Franjo Tudjman triumphantly arrived in Knin, which, according to UN reports was frenziedly looted by Croatian troops. Roomers about how Martic was killed, wounded, captured, how he committed suicide, etc. started going around...Three quarters of the population of Krajina is in exile, convoys of around 200 thousand refugees are crawling across Bosnia to Serbia. Roads around Petrovac, Drvar, Banja Luka and the corridor are congested while the people lack everything : food, water, medicines, blankets, fuel. Old cars keep breaking down, there is nowhere to hide from the sunshine. On arrival in Belgrade refugees testify about "Serbian brotherhood": they were sold fuel for 10-12 German marks per liter and sandwiches at the price of 5 marks, though there were other cases of real solidarity. In Serbia, the refugees were greeted only by rather unkind police, while there were no doctors, or humanitarian organizations which would offer them at least a glass of water. People waited for hours at the border crossing at Sremska Raca. State media reported little about events on the ground but reported plenty about all the help that the refugees received from the generous Serbian authorities. There were also many commentaries about how Martic and Kardzic are to blame for the exodus. Independent TV channel Studio B was warned from the highest (but nonetheless trivial) position in the state hierarchy to watch what it is doing, so a program about the refugees was canceled.

The group of most persistent demonstrators in front of the Federal parliament animated a congregation of a hundred or so believers who attended the afternoon liturgy at the Church of St Marc. The group started walking towards Trg Republike, chanting slogans "Sloba is an Ustashi", "Red gang", "treason, treason", and from there to the Army headquarters. In the absence of ideas about where to go next, the demonstrators dispersed.

Monday

The news of the massacre of civilians in Banija reached Serbia on Monday, August 7. Croats broke the agreement about the peaceful withdrawal of tens of thousands of Serb soldiers who remained in Topusko and around Glina, while the Muslim 5th Corps blocked the roads which lead from Banija to Bosnia, entered Topusko, and began the massacre. At the same time Croatian missiles fell on a convoy of refugees between Petrovac and Kljuc. Five people died in the attack (among which were a young woman and a girl), while fifteen were wounded. Bosnian Muslim artillery fired at a convoy of refugees in Krepsic near Brcko. The General Secretary of the Yugoslav Red Cross said that Yugoslavia is heading towards a humanitarian catastrophe. The term "humanitarian catastrophe" is also being used by the heads of international humanitarian organizations. A kind of state of emergency is introduced in most governmental and non governmental organizations. In the mean time, just in case, Yugoslav Commissioner for refugees Bratislava Buba Morina popped down to Banja Luka in order to explain how there is no room for refugees in Serbia and how most of them should stay with the Bosnian Serbs. Then began the appeals to the population to help as much as possible. Serbian Television bombed the public with reports of all the help Yugoslavia is offering to the refugees, among which was the one about several million litres of water which are being sent, which lead a man from Belgrade to comment "Just as well they haven't worked out how many glasses of water that is". Yeltsin invited Milosevic and Tudjman to Moscow for talks.

In the evening, around two thousand people gathered once again, lead by the leaders of minor, non parliamentary parties which demanded a military intervention by the Yugoslav Army. Mirko Jovic of the Serbian Popular Renewal (SNO) advised the refugees arriving in Serbia to raid flats and houses belonging to "non-Serbs". The demonstrators then marched towards the Serbian parliament building where they smashed a few windows. The American and German embassy buildings suffered similar fate, before police intervened and dispersed the demonstrators. The leader of the Popular Party (NS) Milan Paroski, was one of those who were beaten. The police arrested the leader of the "Orthodox Unison" society and the former commander of the Danube blockade Jovica Vlahovic. After talks with the "Red Star" club officials, and probably an "unofficial briefing" of Arkan's "officer's corps", the Association of Red Star supporters, the so called "Delijas" issued a statement asking its members not to bring fireworks and flares to the match. The appeal was justified on the basis of "UEFA's draconian fines" though it is clear that the authorities feared that some kind of trouble could develop at the stadium.

Tuesday

The drama of the Krajina civilians and soldiers blocked in Banija continued throughout Tuesday, August 8. They were continuously shelled by the Croatian artillery, while soldiers from the 5th Corps burned villages around Glina and killed everyone they came across. News came through about how the SVK under the command of Mile Mrksic, successfully recaptured Dvor na Uni and that it is trying to maintain a corridor for the retreat of those surrounded in Topusko and in Glina. The "journey of the Damned" also continued through the Republic of Srpska towards Serbia. All roads were congested, standstills lasting for hours. Many were left with no means of transport, and thus had to force their fellow sufferers to compassion with a pointed riffle. "Nasa Borba" reported a case of a boy whose hair went completely white during the retreat. According to the Bosnian Serb deputy commissioner for refugees, Dragan Kekic, a baby born a few days ago died somewhere near Pavlovic Cuprija (bordercross with Serbia). Complains were being raised in Serbia how vehicles with fuel, food and medicines can not get to the refugees because of road congestion. At the same time, customs officials from RS are being accused of charging taxes on fuel from Yugoslavia. These claims were denied by Bosnian Serb authorities. Radovan Karadzic wrote an open letter to Slobodan Milosevic in which he accused him of "turning his back to Serbianhood"(and quite a few other things) but at the same time asked him for military assistance. Officials of international humanitarian organizations estimated that Yugoslavia urgently needs 30 million dollars worth of aid, and that would be sufficient only for the bare existence of the 15,000 refugees who arrived to Serbia by that time. People in Serbia are helping as much as they can, though there are those whose line of reasoning is more like "What do we need these for, let them go and fight for what they left behind?". There are no more rallies in Belgrade, probably because a big one, organized by somewhat more serious parties (DS, DSS...) was announced for Wednesday evening.

Wedensday

After a few days of silence, on Wednesday, August 9, Milan Martic finally appeared at a press conference in Banja Luka, comparing himself with Yaser Arafat and announcing a glorious return to Krajina. In Banija, tens of thousands of people were still surrounded by the Croatian army and the Bosnian Muslim 5th Corps, though their evacuation began during the day. It appears that the agreement between the Croatian army and the SVK about the surrender of arms and the evacuation of civilians from Banija did not apply to the 5th Corps which the UN accused of the murder of five aged civilians (one of whom was in a wheel chair) near Dvor na Uni. The bridge across Una over which the convoy was supposed to retreat was shelled all day which made the evacuation virtually impossible. Battles carried on in Dvor na Uni.

Tens of thousands of refugees arrived in Yugoslavia and brought dramatic news such as the one about a desperate man who somewhere between Srb and Martin Brod killed his whole family and then committed suicide. Serbian authorities finally decided to open another border crossing (Sepak near Bogatic) besides Sremska Raca and Pavlovica Cuprija and promised that the crossing at Karakaj will be opened as well in near future. In Serbia, an HQ was created with the task of coordinating all humanitarian actions. Cornelio Somaruga, the General Secretary of the International Red Cross announced the opening of a humanitarian "air link" Belgrade- Banja Luka, while Slobodan Milosevic, after meeting the "state officials responsible for the organization of humanitarian aid for the refugees from war torn parts of RSK" flew to Moscow, in response to Yeltsin's invitation. In the evening the Association of Serbs from the former Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Serbian council for the protection of rights and freedoms, organized a rally attended by some ten thousand protesters at Trg Republike. The leaders of the DS and the DSS, representatives of the Church and many other "national intellectuals" addressed the rally, while the rain helped the protesters to disperse more quickly.

Thursday

President of the Republic of Srpska Nikola Koljevic said on Thursday 10. August that 29 people died so far in the convoys. It is impossible to check this claim, but the final "black balance-sheet" is being awaited with anxiety.