Cruelty and Bigotry

The last act of ethnic purification was conducted at the beginning of the last week when 80 local residents from the Ruthenian village of Miklosevci were expelled to Vinkovci, under allegations that they are related to people who were mobilized by Croatian authorities "before the war". This deportation made us ask Mr. Julijan Tamas, the leader of this small minority in Vojvodina, for an opinion.

Mr. Tamas, how do you assess the pressure exerted on ethnic Ruthenians and Ukrainians to move out, and the latest deportations?

According to our information, at the Association of Ruthenians and Ukrainians from Yugoslavia, in the Vukovar, Petrovac and Miklosevci regions, around 80 people of our nationality were killed, and we are sure that 37 have been killed after the fighting stopped. After the so-called liberation of these regions, a curfew was imposed during which only local armed authorities had the right to carry weapons and to circulate. It was then that the nocturnal "tours" around houses started, with torturing, maltreatment and threats, with diversely graded warnings that Ruthenians must move out. Whenever someone did not understand such warnings, murders followed (especially of members of more prominent and wealthy families) particularly of those who had cousins in the Croatian National Guards. After all, Mr. Rade Leskovac (a Serbian Krajina official encharged with public relations) recently advocated this criterion in public in an interview to the BORBA daily.

Therefore, there are two criteria for forced evacuation: the first concerns those who have relatives in Croatian military formations, while the second applies to those who have a nice, comfortable house. Simply, the Krajina government has legalized the torture and violence.

How did your Association react?

For quite a while now we have been warning the highest institutions of power - the Yugoslav Presidency, the Serbian President, the governments of Serbia and Krajina. At first, our assertions were rejected, but, finally, Mr. Jovic, in the name of Yugoslav Presidency, admitted everything in a letter recently sent to the Russian ambassador, with an apology to all permanent Security Council member-states.

How come Ruthenians are emigrating from territories under the UNPROFOR Russian battalion's control?

I don't want to be ill-willed, but I have to say that we possess unconfirmed information that this Russian battalion has not behaved in the way we expected. I don't know whether they are not familiar with the situation or are supporting in a way the Republic of Krajina's government's actions, but there are some indications that the expulsion of Ruthenians was secured by the Russian battalion.

In my opinion, the ethnic purification of Slavonia, Baranja and Western Srem is a consequence of the "practical consistency" of the idea that the bordering region must be 100% Serbian. And Ruthenians, in no way guilty, stand in the way of this theory. It is possible that some trumped up fault of Ruthenians and Ukrainians in Croatia will be used to warn these peoples in Vojvodina. And to whom do 17,000 Ruthenians and Ukrainians in Vojvodina are pose a threat, especially when amongst them a pro-regime attitude (which has often made their whole people bend to the very ground) has always been strong?!