Bijeljina

Bijeljina has some twenty-thousand inhabitants more than it did according to the 1991 census. According to estimates, as there are no officially precise data, the municipality has a population of 115,000 and the town has 45,000. The man of continuity, as far as ruling is concerned, Ljuba Mihajlovic says that there are 45,000 refugees, 28,000 of them in the town. The list for humanitarian aid included 18,000 displaced persons, but international organizations are sending less help instead of more. The local population seeks help because their supplies were "eaten up" by the war; the queue for aid includes also demobilized soldiers because they cannot find work. Mihajlovic names the problems: the inadequate structure of the newly arrived population - mostly farmers - difficulties in the operation of municipal services, shortage of parking space compared with the number of vehicles, only 5 to 40 percent of capacities working (the average percentage in the Bosnian Serb Republic is 4 to 8). He suggests rise of production for which partial demobilization and lifting of sanctions were pre-requisites; all they need now is the financial aid promised in Dayton. But it is not arriving.

The political scene? It is heating up, Mihajlovic says. The most active parties are the Serbian Democratic Party (SDS), Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS), the Democratic Party (not related with the democrats in Serbia), the Party of Serbian Unity and the Serbian Radical Party (SRS). There is no one else. According to his and other people's estimates, the parties of the centre and nationally-oriented ones have better chances in elections, but no one will win absolute majority. He says SDS is going into the elections burdened by its past - with the war and all negative things which accompanied it: criminal, inefficient state - but also with the advantage of a party which gave the people the state. The Bijeljina SDS branch had a conflict with the main board last summer. Since then, according to the local SIM newspaper, a new leaf has been turned. The local authorities have realized that they should not blindly follow those who hear only their own voices. There has been no attempt of a dialogue with the other side and the intentions are being carried out by one and the same.

"Whoever wants to lead the people must be morally clean and prove that they had not profited from this war," says Banja Luka mayor Predrag Radic. If one adds to all this the increased public activity of Ljubisa Savic, better known as Major Mauzer, commander of the "Panthers", one might guess the strategy and people with whose help it will be attempted to move Pale, with no personnel luggage, elsewhere. The Bijeljina SDS branch has already suggested Brcko for the new capital. Of what importance is Major Mauzer for the story? He has an incredible reputation in the army and among the people and as a democrat, representing the Veterans' Association, participates in the promotions of all parties. Estimates are that the transformed SDS - without Karadzic in The Hague and hard Krajisnik - with Koljevic the ideologist, Radic the future mediator and with military authorities such as Mauzer, would spare the party of the sinful epithets and that it would bring victory which would eliminate the surprise called socialists.

The explanation for the SIM newspaper's changed editorial concept is that the "strengthening of peace enables better and more versatile political activity and, therefore, publishing of various ideas about the future." Pale, however, has a different idea about the journey into the future. In early April, the Government proposed and the Parliament passed a law according to which the Government directly names editors-in-chief of local media. Additionally, the media have been ordered to cover only the activities of SDS.

It does not require much wisdom to realize who the law refers to, so SIM proclaimed a "state of emergency," especially since the municipality has already invested over a million German Marks into a TV studio which is being completed. More money came from private businessmen and a loan of 350,000 German Marks. The newly-passed law reflects Pale's intention to take control of everything. Information Minister Dragan Bozanic, according to whom the media must be under control, is seen as the initiator of the hunt on the freedom of the media. The SIM staff are afraid that now that the newspaper has become a high-quality one, a "thief from Pale might come and become the editor." They see bad intentions in the questions about the loan for the studio. So they have a question to ask: "What has happened with the 700,000 German Marks provided for the reconstruction of the destroyed transmitters when they are still out of order eight months later." They added they would not allow the application of the Serbian recipe in which all the media are in the service of a small group of people.

Slavonija

On the Spot: Slavonija

by Perica Vucinic

Serbs in Slavonija and Baranja trust no one any more. Their reaction to possible re-integration into Croatia is an instinctive one - they load their things on tractors and trucks and take them to Serbia. Then they return and fearfully await the outcome. The village of Ilaca is on that little piece of land which is still called the Srem-Baranja District (SBO), on the last fragment which has remained of the smashed Serbian national dream which used to be called the Republic of Serb Krajina. It has been calculated that SBO takes up four and a half percent of the territory of the Republic of Croatia. Serbia's President Slobodan Milosevic supported and promised to help the implementation of international organizations' decision to re-integrate this territory into Croatia, which is the essence of the Erdut agreement signed in November 1995. However, U.S. Ambassador to Croatia Peter Galbright was the first one to openly tell the Serbs in the District the bitter truth that they were actually living in Croatia. According to the agreement, their safety will be guaranteed over a two-year period by the international forces (Untaes), but this is of no significance for them because Untaes's task is to form the conditions for the establishment of the Croatian rule. Before April 15, when the mandate of the international forces begins, the Serbs are reacting instinctively - by moving out.

Most of the people now living in Ilaca did not even know the village existed before the war. They fled, retreated in battle or were exiled from the vicinity of Pakrac and other Serb-populated places in Croatia. Before the war, Ilaca was populated mostly by Croats and had only three or four Serb houses. A large number of demolished houses testify about the ethnic structure of the village before the war. Serb refugees moved into the houses that had not been demolished. The plan for re-integration of SBO into Croatia foresees the return of the "displaced persons" to their homes. This adds to the fear of the Serbs living in Croats' houses.

"All day long we stare, gaze, worry and wait. One cannot sleep. There is no one at the border and they can come here in 15 minutes and tell us - 'Get lost, these are our homes'," says a seventy-year old refugee from Western Slavonija. He says the Serbs no longer have their houses and that they dare not be under the Croatian rule again.

"It is not easy for the Croats who had left," says Cvijeta Ilijina, a native of Ilaca. When no one agrees with her she goes down the road. "Everything has been said," says Budimir Zakula from Otocac. From Otocac he fled to Vrhovine, from Vrhovine to Slavonija. On his way, he sold two horses for next to nothing. They slaughtered the cows so as not to starve. The house in Otocac has been burnt down. "Everything has gone," he says.

The Zakula family share the fate of about 95,000 exiled and displaced Serbs from Croatia who sought shelter in Slavonija and Baranja. According to a report by special UN human rights envoy Elizabeth Wrenn, between 150,000 and 170,000 people are now living in the Srem-Baranja district. During the 1991 and 1992 battles, about 75,000 Croats left the district and the Serb refugees moved in. Wrenn says the district is over-populated especially since many houses were demolished in the war. She assessed the situation of the Serb refugees and displaced persons as terrible. They get modest portions of bread and soup and are under-nourished. The elderly rely completely on humanitarian aid because they have not been receiving their pensions in the past five years. Instead of the pensions, the local Serb authorities have been giving them 10 U.S. Dollars worth of social aid per month, said Elizabeth Wrenn in her report.

In a corner of the pub "Sport" there is a TV set showing the broadcast of TV Serbia, before and during the war one of the most powerful means which led the Serbs to destruction and disgrace.

Zarko Misanovic standing at the bar swore and said "If they hadn't given us arms, we wouldn't have fought. They took us to war. Doesn't Serbia feel guilty for what's happening to us. If she doesn't, then let's say good-bye and that will be the end of it. Two other men Radenko Bajic and Ceda Veselinovic back up Misanovic's words. Noise in the bar ceases and then three men appear. One of them says that Milosevic is the greatest traitor of the Serbian people. They start arguing: "The greatest!", "I say that, too,", "The greatest traitor!", "The greatest!" There was only one remark: "Be quiet. You are criticising and you will ask to be admitted to Serbia!" "I shall go up to Karadzic in Bosnia," said the one who wanted to be the most vociferous.

Misanovic waited until the argument settled down and then he said: "We feel great bitterness. I took my uniform off 20 days ago and now I have to be afraid. Tudjman will arrest people here according to their ranks. I was in the military police, arrested people, and now I will be arrested. And I have two sons. Will anyone take care about them? No one." Radenko Bajic says a new exodus will follow. "We, Western Slavonija, the Knin Krajina were supposedly one state but people here were listening to loud music while people there were fleeing. It's our turn now."

Enormous trunks of the Slavonija oak are moving out together with the people. "This is what worries us. It tells us that we should go," says a man from Ilaca. He gets the same ideas from the fact that the border is crossed without difficulty, only with a list of names and bulky items. We did not notice customs officers at the crossing into Serbia after midnight. This is probably why people are moving at night.

According to regulations of the Serbian Interior Ministry, unauthorised persons may not loiter in the space within 100 meters from the border crossing. Only from this close up can one see how the barrier is moved at night to let trucks and tractors to the Serbian side. One can notice that the procedure is quite simple and short.

Trucks and tractors keep crossing all night, carrying tiles, bricks, even rocks. The driver of a tractor which was pulling a broken-down truck waved his hand and said: "Leave me alone, go and ask Milosevic:" The driver of the broken-down truck said: "Why at night? Because I didn't manage to move out in daytime."

People were pouring some water into the radiator of a tractor parked outside restaurant "Serbia" some 100 meters from the border crossing. And on a wall opposite the restaurant was also the word "Serbia". And this actually was Serbia.

A kilometre further to the north-west, when one passes the sign saying "Republic of Serb Krajina," on the walls of demolished houses one can see the graffiti "This is Serbia." This is not true and even the graffiti writers realize it now. Only those who had inspired them are still playing dumb.