Les Officers Sans Frontiers

Late in May, just 10 days before the Serbian police started the mobilization of Krajina refugees in Serbia, the Association of Age Old Dwellers of Serbia (UDS) issued a poster which said there were 240,000 deserters in Serbia who should immediately be returned to the front so that "our children don't have to die for the homes of deserters". That same group soon published another poster saying army officers and policemen born west of the Drina are occupiers in Serbia and should be deported.

The UDS seems to be a singularly well-informed organization. VREME learned that Krajina army officers who are now refugees in Serbia and were in the former Yugoslav army (JNA) or the Yugoslav Army (VJ) once have been ordered to report to the Krajina army headquarters in Banja Luka by September 1. If not, they loose their status in the VJ and can count on being drafted on the street by the police just like any other army age Krajina man. What happened to the police the UDS mentioned we don't know. Well informed sources claim policemen in Serbia who were born west of the Drina were told to go to the Krajina for two months in June and July with regular pay or resign the force.

VREME was told about the ultimatum to Krajina army officers by their families who said spokesmen for the officers met with VJ general staff personnel chief General Mikovic on August 25 in an effort to regulate their status in Yugoslavia. Family members then asked VJ supreme commander, Yugoslav President Zoran Lilic for help. They were told by his cabinet that the FRY president has no information on the orders to report to Banja Luka.

The families insist there is no question of the officers' cowardice. They said many of these men had been at war since 1991 and lost virtually everything they had first in the former Yugoslav republics and now in the Krajina. The only thing they want now is to settle in the FRY as members of its armed forces which they essentially were all along. They added that after everything that happened it was unacceptable for them to be under the command of people like Milan Martic or General Mile Mrksic.

VREME turned to the VJ information service in an effort to get an official reaction on the position of Krajina officers in the Federal Republic Yugoslavia. The service was asked for figures on the number of regular army personnel who joined the SVK under orders or voluntarily, how many of them reached the FRY and how many are in the Bosnian Serb Republic (RS); how many responded to the order to report to Banja Luka and the legal basis of that order.

The VJ information service answer was short: "We understand your interest in these issues. Since these are Republic of Serb Krajina (RSK) army officers perhaps the RSK office would be willing to reply to your questions."

VREME went to the RSK office defence department. There we were told that any question about the order to report to Banja Luka by September 1 should be addressed to the VJ chief of staff. In other words, the RSK office never received the order, knows nothing about it, or who issued it. They know it exists from informal sources and refused to comment.

Belgrade-based independent daily Nasa Borba tried to determine what the status of the Krajina officers is in the VJ and was told that they were in Yugoslavia with permission from the Krajina army headquarters to bring their families in and report back by September 1.

No one seems to know anything. The most interesting thing is that the authorities in Serbia are meeting the requests of the people they blame for the fall of the Krajina. Possibly because there's still some negotiating position to be gained on the ground for President Milosevic to talk about. He is now trying to save what he can of the policies that made him master of war in the former Yugoslavia.

The Krajina officers are getting the same treatment as army age Krajina men. Some say it would be unjust for the officers to be left behind since most of them had a way of life that was far apart from ordinary soldiers. Also, they bear responsibility for much of what has happened. But these are now men who saw the futility of war through defeat and who the regime is preventing from starting a new life.

What's waiting for them on the front is best shown by an example from Eastern Slavonija. A group of men in black uniforms brought a group of frightened Krajina men from the FRY and handed them over to a lieutenant who said his unit was full and he didn't know what to do with them. The leader of the black clad group struck the officer, shoved the frightened refugees into a jeep and drove off to another unit.

Overall, groups like that are the only real authorities in that region: they decided who comes and goes and who gets what. It's highly cynical to ask anyone, officer or enlisted man, to fight to sustain that state of affairs.

Antrfile

Round Table

Serbs in Croatia

VREME organized a round table on the position and future of Serb refugees on August 30. The debate was attended by Dusan Ecimovic - head of the Initiative Board for the Return of Serbs to Croatia, Jovan Vejnovic - former diplomat originally from Knin, international law experts - Konstantin Obradovic and Gaso Knezevic of Belgrade University, Vojislav Vukcevic - founder of the Serbian Democratic Party, now general secretary of the Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO) and Sonja Biserko - representing the Helsinki Human Rights Committee. The most interesting parts of the debate on the causes and developments of what happened to the Serbs in Croatia, their position now, protection of their property, international solutions and the possibility of their return home will be published in the next issue of VREME.