Refugees Even in Jail

If we get the keys to the jail by nightfall we can house at least another 80 refugees from Ilidza, Trebinje refugee bureau chief Danilo Capin told VREME on March 12. The Moslem-Croat Federation authorities were already in Ilidza, once the home to 10,000 Serbs. The Bosnian Serb government sent the refugees to six municipalities in Herzegovina and most chose to go to Trebinje.

Humanitarian workers in the town were confounded. They had no way of knowing the exact number of refugees since many were wandering around town looking for a place to stay and registering for aid afterwards. A figure of 6,000 was in circulation but Capin said the main wave of refugees who left Ilidza on the evening of March 11 hadn't arrived yet.

"We've filled the refugee hostel, several abandoned schools and now we've asked for part of the jail and later we'll see how many we can get into the army barracks," Capin said.

Krista Novosel and her daughter, son in law and two grandchildren are in the refugee hostel, cramped into a 10 square meter room. They say they were lucky to get the converted office with wires sticking out of the walls, mattresses on the floor and no heating. The few belongings they managed to take with them are in three bags on the floor. They arrived by bus and the son in law went back to try to bring out some furniture. "This is my first time in Trebinje," Krista said, "I have no money or anywhere to go to a better life. We left our house and God willing we might get something for it some day."

In the next room, a scowling man paced back and forth, cursing the authorities and the entire world but refused to say his name: "They just told me my house in Ilidza was set on fire. The Croats and Moslems didn't do that. Serbs did it to prevent Moslems from taking it. My last hope of ever getting anything for it is gone. They're setting houses on fire for who know what reason, maybe to force people to follow mad politicians."

"This is my second movement," Janko Popovac said. "I moved into Ilidza three years ago. I was lucky to be able to trade the keys to my house in Sarajevo for the house in Ilidza with a Moslem. Even the few things I brought with me aren't mine. I took them from the Ilidza house, and if someone sets fire to it..."

"There are apartments in Trnovo," says Miro Elez, "but I didn't want to go there and nor do others since the corridor goes right through that town. People want to go far away and they're not respecting the government decision to come to Herzegovina. They're heading for Bijeljina, Visegrad and Zvornik. Some are waiting to follow the machines from the factories they worked in. They hope they'll get jobs."

Trebinje Mayor Bozidar Vucurevic, his opposition says, was one of the fiercest opponents of moving the factories to Trebinje and none of the machines came into the town.

Incomplete figures place the number of people in the six Herzegovina municipalities at 110,000 with refugees accounting for one third of that number. The authorities obviously want to make up for the shortage of people in Nevesinje and Foca. Some 20,000 of the total of 40,000 Moslems who left Herzegovina moved out of Foca and there is housing available in the town. All three Bosnian armies tried to destroy the town and both Moslem and Serb houses were caught in the middle. There was no destruction in Trebinje.

"I used all my authority to prevent the killing of Moslems and Croats in Trebinje and I don't accept the charges that I'm a war criminal," Vucurevic told VREME. "I made sure that every Moslem who was scared by the arrival of Serbs fleeing from Moslems and Croats could leave peacefully. We provided passports while we had them, as well as transport and nationalized their property for the refugees. There was no killing here which is a rarity in Bosnia."

Vucurevic said some 5,500 Moslems moved out of Trebinje along with several hundred Croats, but he could not specify the number of houses and apartments they left. "All those houses are in use. We're moving Serb refugees from local villages in the combat zone out of them. We moved Ilidza Serbs into some of them but we can't help them any more than that. Many people come to see me with letters from Karadzic, Koljevic and Plavsic but I can't do anything for them because there is no more housing to go around."

Vucurevic said his authorities are doing everything to implement the Dayton agreement. I asked whether he'll allow Moslem and Croat refugees to return. "They can only come here as tourists because if Serbs can't live in Mostar, Zenica and Sarajevo we can't talk about their return. We know the Serbs are an ancient democratic people and there are about 100 Croats and 2-300 Moslems living in Trebinje. A Catholic priest even comes in for mass."

Ivka Trajkovski confirmed that the vicar came in from Mostar the previous week and added that the church is intact but that the parish office is home to refugees. "There are about 40 Catholics left here, mainly in mixed marriages and everyone who had sons left. Our priest told us that there are talks underway of exchanging priests so that the Orthodox community in Mostar can have its priest and we can have ours."

"There were never more than 80 Moslems left," a Serb woman married to a Moslem told VREME when her husband refused to talk. "My husband hasn't been out of the house in four years. He's been through hell but he stayed because his family has lived here for 350 years. The persecution of Moslems was an unprecedented crime. They didn't allow them to take anything with them and took away their money and jewelry. Only Srdjan Aleksic (22) stood up to defend them in front of the police station but he was killed. Twelve mosques were destroyed in the Trebinje area, not only the one that was reported."