Voting at The Black Knight

Restaurants were almost empty on the eve of elections because the serving of spirits was prohibited, but nevertheless - in the dark streets of the city’s suburbs, beer was flowing generously while calculations were made on how many of "theirs" and how many of "ours" could arrive to vote. Fear was equally present among both groups. "Ours", the refugees coming from SRY, might fail to come in the announced number of some 31,000 to Brcko on September 14th. "Theirs" might consent to Alija Izetbegovic who, at the rally in a nearby village a few days earlier, invited the refugees from Brcko to get ready to return home soon. The "well-checked" information accounted that "their" side could also come in great number and on the other side of the so-called "inter-ethnic line" there was a queue of 17 buses ready to start from the Serbian side early in the morning.

The next day proved, however, that nothing was certain with the Bosnian elections except two things - that it was well known in advance who was to win and that every instance proved these were the most complicated and certainly the most expensive elections in modern time.

On the very day of elections, only around 6,000 refugees from SRY arrived, and by local estimations that could mean that "ours" have failed or "betrayed", both expressions resulting in the same thing. Most of the refugees who came to Brcko in the morning, by who knows which "great transport" in their lifetime, were in this city for the first time. Maybe also the last, because as they said, they came to help Republika Srpska with their votes, but not to really live in that town one day. While waiting for the buses to take them back, they were trying to find some of their former countrymen or neighbors. So it happened that, after exactly four years, neighbors from Konjic met in Brcko - two of them came from Cacak, two from Zemun and one from Brcko.

On the other side across the city, in front of the two erected tents, the members of the electoral commission, a dozen people from the OEBS and at least a hundred journalists stood waiting for the voters from the Federation, i.e. the Moslem refugees from the surrounding villages. These two tents or voting stations were at the same time, the only roofed "objects" in the circumference of two kilometers. They stood by the local, rather eroded and muddy road that once used to link the Moslem suburbs of Brcko.

Journalists were controlled from the lend by the IFOR soldiers, armed to the pitch. Besides the guards in the armored vehicles, this voting station was passed by the IFOR jeeps - at least five of them in a convoy- every five minutes. From the air, the terrain was constantly controlled by the helicopters of the American Army, who took off from the nearby improvised heliodrom with a high-sounding name "the Black Knight". Before the war, however, the Black Knight was called "pheasant farm".

From 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. while this voting station was open, only four people appeared to vote. Hakija and Feta Kucic, an elder couple from Brcko, came around noon. Since they both spent the entire war in this city, they were not very attractive for journalists because they did not fall in the category of "high risk" voters that crossed the inter-ethnic line. Hakija and Feta chose to vote there because they had heard their son-in-law and their daughter, who had escaped to the other side after the beginning of the war, would come to the same place at noon.

However, until the end of the day, only one white Fiat Uno appeared from the other side with a Brcko register plate and with the sticker of the Federation. Mirsad Reizovic and Enes Tursic, former citizens of Brcko and their wives were inside. They said that they came to vote in their city and that they currently live in the village Gunja on the Croatian side, just some hundred meters from their former homes across the Sava. Mirsad asserted even that from Gunja, there, across the bridge in the other state, he could clearly see the place where he used to live. A little later, when he completely relaxed from the obvious fear, Mirsad told the story of how he was the owner of a ship-restaurant on the Sava before the war, and that the ruins of that ship could easily be seen from the other bank. However, there was no reason for fear. Both potential voters were instantly surrounded by the OEBS monitors who began to explain their voting rights to them. When the two men finally entered the tent and took the ballots, the OEBS people turned to their wives who had not left the parked car. They were explaining to them that they also could vote, that their voting was even desirable, but they were still not willing to leave the car. The discussion was soon over, after the discovery that Mirsad and Enes were not in the list of voters, although some people from the committee even knew them personally and were complaining that the lists were not made by them but by the people from the international institutions.

Nenad Stefanovic

Our Reporter in the Big Transport

Everything was operating on a professional level and everybody seem satisfied, even the regime in Serbia which organized the refugees to "collect" several tens of thousands of votes for Karadzic’s party

On Saturday, the territory of the Serbian entity in Bosnia survived an organized invasion of buses from Serbia. It was a pleasure to see the motor pool available in Serbia. The refugees from Bosnia mostly voted in places where they did not live before the war, that is Brcko, Samac, Doboj, Zvornik, Srebrenica, Srbinje... The patriot duty was given priority over the citizens’ and they were rushing like mad to preserve "the Serbian state" in Bosnia. Of course, the refugees who did not understand what their duty was were "stimulated" by means of clearly bringing to their attention that only voting would regulate their status. And who did they vote for? Mostly for SDS because the refugees "got to know" Milosevic and did not wish to meet him even in Bosnia. So it came to be that the regime in Serbia, through Buba Morina, set to "collect" over a hundred thousand votes for the followers of Karadzic. Milosevic was not to blame that everything did not end as planned. And after all, everyone is satisfied: the international community, those elected, and the voters. Each due to its own interests, and each till the next opportunity that will arise for certain.

On the Serbian side of the border crossing of Sepak near Loznica were military and customs platoons. The policeman from RS ask "are you from Srna or for Milosevic?" On the road to Bijeljina, we pass buses on their way to Zvornik, Bratunac, Srebrenica, enforced IFOR patrols... Bijeljina is disfigured by electoral posters, there are queues in front of the voting stations, especially in front of community halls. The railway station is crowded with buses from everywhere, especially from Belgrade. The trip to Bijeljina was by train, by bus further on.

At the station, big commotion - queues of buses with destination plates, people bumping into each other, grabbing the UNHCR white luncheon sacs... A train is coming into the station - race for returning is beginning. An older, bulky man takes a seat. He has a briefcase. He presents himself, Dragan Bricic from Cukarica, Belgrade. Organizer of the trip, selected by the SPS committee and - here he stammers, he can not remember - yes, the Committee of Serbs from the Former BIH. He brought 3,000 people with him. Big enterprise. He shakes his head while watching young men with the UNHCR sacs - "our people is damned, it takes anything it can lay hands on, does not care for the others."

The trip continues to Brcko. We take two young men with us; they are currently living in Vrsac, but one is from Lukavac near Tuzla, the other from Bosanski Petrovac. They are on their way to Modrica to pay a visit to their families. They voted in Bratunac. How? They explained that they were asked for their identification cards and passports, but they were also told those IDs could be presented after the voting. They were given the typed P2 forms and then directed to Bratunac. Do they intend to live there? Not even in their dreams. Who did they voted for? They look at each other, surprised by the question. What do you mean who did we vote for? We voted for the continuance of the fight for survival!

In Brcko, an indescribable turmoil of buses, people, police, IFOR’s vehicles... The followers of Arkan were the last to work there - there still remain their posters with the message "Brcko is Serbian and will remain Serbian". The biggest crowd is in the downtown area, in front of a bank; this is the central voting station that deals with "re-registration of voters". Everyone is patient, the OEBS poster, used now for arranging yellow peppers, says "Choose the Best". The secretary of the local electoral committee Milenko Marjanovic explains that the crowd is made by those asking for certificates to prove they have voted, since those are the precondition for boarding the bus and returning to Serbia.

We are leaving for Brod which is on the bordering line between the two entities. We take the left turn off the road, to Modrica. There are ruined, degraded houses along the road. And the road is only several kilometers long. At the base of IFOR they except our Vreme identification cards. The voting stations of Moslems are the two worn out military tents.

On our return to Brezovo Polje, where quite a lot of refugees voted, we are stopped by a hitchhiker from Banjaluka, now studying in Belgrade. At the dormitory they were summoned by announcements over loudspeakers, then given their destinations. The student filled in a form to vote in Bijeljina, but he was taken to Brcko. The trip from Belgrade to Bijeljina took him six hours. He voted in a tent erected in on local soccer field. Politics is not his strong point. He does not understand how those who came to vote in Bosnia from Serbia voted, having heard only about the League for Peace and Progress and SDS. He will go where he sees a good future but at the moment, he does not see it on the either bank of the Drina. More and more often he asks himself the question: "Why was I born in this country!"

Late in the afternoon. Bijeljinja is still in shape. The store windows are decorated by framed pictures of Radovan Karadzic. There’s still a queue in front of the community hall. The president of the community electoral committee is Veselin Londrovic. The electorate numbers 94,000 - there is no data on how many came from Serbia. No incidents, no complaints. Moslems voted in Suho Polje, Base and Donji Zagoni. According to his data, 52 Moslems voted. Anything that should be noted? No. Pencils at the voting stations? They were distributed by OEBS, he replies.

Janja, the place that used to be almost hundred percent Moslem is now almost hundred percent Serbian. The voting station is in the shop "Drina". Around 600 voted, but there are still unused forms left, explains the chairman. He stresses that peace and order are at a low level. There are also representatives of all parties and even the aggressive representative of SDS comes into the conversation. They inform us that some 50 Moslems who remained in the city voted. "Transfer the truth to the Serbian people," they say. We talk to the member of the electoral board, a refugee from Prijedor. He has some accommodation, works more for society than for himself. He lives as is possible, he does not know for how long. He hopes for the better.

Dragan Todorovic

On the Spot: Mostar

One Way Bridge

Three months after local elections and three years after the introduction of the European Union protectorate, Mostar appears more divided than ever. Even the famous wine "Zilavka" exists in a Croatian and a Moslem flavor

On Tuesday last week, four days before the elections in Bosnia, several hundred Moslems gathered in the old quarter of the city to watch the state championships for jumps into the Neretva river. Just as in pre-war time, the contestants’ names were announced over a loudspeaker, the three members jury judged, while the spectators commented and, at times, cheered. Everything seemed as it used to be, except for one small detail: instead of jumping from the Old Bridge, demolished during the Moslem-Croat clash in 1993, the contestants jumped from an improvised platform built right next to the narrow suspension bridge which today connects the two banks of the Neretva. This made the entire event less of a sports competition, and more of a somewhat sad, and somewhat obscene theatrical performance.

The Boulevard of Aleksa Santic running along the west bank of the Neretva, which was the front line during the Moslem-Croat war, still divides the city in two. That line is never crossed but out of great urge, especially not by the men eligible for military service. The two parts of the city even have the plates with street names in different colors: in the Moslem part of the city they are blue or green, while in the Croat part they are red and bear the names of "esteemed" Croats like Mile Budak and Bruno Busic. The Boulevard is now simply called the "Boulevard" and is patrolled by the WEU police and the mixed Croat-Moslem patrols.

However, a black Mercedes without registration plates passes the street on some nights with mysterious people firing occasionally at the Moslem passers by, sometimes even throwing a grenade.

In spite of all efforts made so far and the fact that the international or mixed patrols and the black Mercedes passed each other at several occasions, the investigation is still marking time.

Things are not much better with the joint city administration, which almost never meets even though the Croats have ceased the boycott. Formally, the administration should be managed by the mayor Ivo Prskalo and his deputy Safet Orucevic. In reality, however, Orucevic and Prskalo do not meet, each sitting on his side of the Boulevard. The recently-elected Prskalo is considered to be moderate in his beliefs, but many believe that behind the scene, the Croat part of the city is ruled by the former mayor Mijo Brajkovic. The central HDZ rally, at which Prskalo has not been seen in the lodge and Brajkovic was honored to open the gathering, proved Brajkovic’s existing popularity. Speaking at this occasion about the Moslem requests to return to their homeland on the west side, he said: "The bridge was not erected so that they could pass on this side, but for us to pass there, to the Croat land." The applause that followed was loud.