Terrible, Worse, Worst

I saw women and children sleeping in the snow crowded round a fire of burning plastic bottle cartons. A river of refugees kept pouring into Srebrenica from Cerska, Konjevic Polje, Vlasenica and Kamenica all night at a temperature of -15 C. They came with small parcels and children in their hands. Many had walked for 18-19 hours. A horse was a luxury, some led a cow, the majority did not have anything. Most hadn't eaten anything for three to five days. There were no formal civilian authorities in the town to organize their reception. There was Mayor, but he had no control. There was no Red Cross, the civil defence was completely paralyzed. No one could tell the new arrivals where to go, where to find food, what to expect. The children were crying constantly..." This is the picture of Srebrenica that Lawrence Jolles of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) described to VREME on March 28.

Jolles, a Dutchman, regularly accompanies the UNHCR convoys ferrying humanitarian aid to Srebrenica. So far, seven have arrived there with 18-20 trucks of food and medicine. The first convoy entered the besieged town in December last year. "The situation was very difficult then. The town had been under siege for seven months, and none of us knew what we would find. At that time the streets were empty. A little food could be found. The people weren't starved. The greatest problem at that time was medicine. That is why I was shocked when we entered in late March with general Morillon. Two-thirds of the people who are in Srebrenica now, are arrivals. Cerska and Konjevic Polje are deserted and practically everybody is in Srebrenica. Instead of the 5,000-6,000 people who used to live there, there are now 30,000."

Jolles describes what happened when the crates with food (Operation Provide Promise) started dropping. "After the first days, the planes dropped their loads precisely. Whenever planes were heard, a river of people would rush up to the mountains. Only the strongest reached the crates. Women with children and the old did not. They didn't get anything unless a cousin gave them something. I saw that in such situations people lose all social awareness, and feeling for others."

"The situation regarding medicine and medical material was horrendous. They didn't have anything. There were many wounded soldiers, but I also saw women and children without legs and arms. The hospital was overflowing. There were several doctors and they operated the whole day long, working with what they had. One of our convoys brought along doctors from the Medecins Sans Frontiers organization. They started working in the hospital and engaged the refugees to clean it up. A water expert helped set up a water-supply system from disinfected cisterns. Probably thanks to the winter, no serious epidemic broke out. We tried to set up a food distribution system of sorts, using existing structures. We identified priority cases - the oldest and the most exhausted, and tried to ensure that they received their daily portions of food. We started two soup kitchens which issued some food to 3,000-3,500 people daily. The children receive 100 gm of bread and milk - we know it isn't much, but it's better than nothing. Two bakeries are working. The refugees are cleaning the town. Nobody is in the streets anymore."

Can the civilians be evacuated from the town? Jolles explains that they wished to get the heavily wounded out first. "We got some out with UN helicopters. Then they started firing at them, and we had to stop." After this the trucks which had brought food and medicine to Srebrenica evacuated around 700 wounded and sick to Tuzla. That was on March 25. During two more visits 2,400-2,500 people were evacuated. "We wished to evacuate a group of 650 people who needed help more urgently than others, but the people literally took over the trucks in a stampede that night. They fought to get in. They were desperate and wanted to get out at any price. I saw mothers throw their babies into the trucks over the heads of other people. I saw women fighting. Several people were crushed to death. We tried to empty three of the trucks for some of those 650 in critical condition, since none of them could get in, in the scramble. We managed to get some from the hospital in, and then decided to start for Tuzla. There was simply no other way."

Jolles says it is much better in Tuzla, even though there are many problems, and it is difficult to find place for new arrivals. However, the reception of refugees is organized; they get milk, food and medical aid in the sports center, and then go on to neighboring villages. Every municipality in the vicinity organizes the reception of refugees."

"How did we get to Tuzla? I met general Ratko Mladic (Commander of Bosnian Serb Forces) in Bratunac. He chatted with the women in the trucks and asked where their husbands were, and wished them safe journey and promised that they would reach Tuzla safely. He told the military escort, a member of the Serbian Republic in Bosnia-Herzegovina army who was with the convoy, to escort us to the front-line (Kalesija, Caparde), and said he didn't want any complications. Problems, however, started at the front-line. They checked all the trucks again, looking for Moslem soldiers and arms. We called on general Mladic, and repeated what he had said, but there was no way we could convince them. In the end we managed to reach Tuzla. Several people died on the way. The trucks were overloaded, and the roads bad. It was a long journey and they were in a critical condition."

That is how things went for several days. Even though the situation in Srebrenica is a little better, the people still desperately want to get out. The local Moslem authorities allowed the UNHCR trucks to leave on three occasions. "In the last few days they haven't allowed anyone to leave. The trucks which unload the food and medicine, return empty. They've engaged the army and are not allowing anyone near the trucks. Why? They say that this is a Moslem area, and that it will be ethnically cleansed if the people leave, and that the Serbs will bomb them. I think we convinced them. We reached an agreement with Alija Izetbegovic (President of Bosnia-Herzegovina) and the local authorities in Tuzla to receive wounded civilians, women and children and the elderly over 65 years of age. Izetbegovic and the officials in Tuzla said that they had talked with the authorities in Srebrenica, but nothing happened. We could have evacuated 1,500 people daily."

Jolles describes how the humanitarian convoys travel from Belgrade to Srebrenica. "It is not always easy to cross the Zvornik bridge. Sometimes it is easy, they just check us pro forma, and let us through. Sometimes we wait for days, and they check us many times. Then they say that they were not informed of our arrival, that we are not using the agreed route, or simply, that they have instructions not to let us through.

We do not have any great problems with the Yugoslav army. The military police detained us once when we started for Zvornik because we didn't know it was problematic to circulate freely in Yugoslavia. The real difficulties start however, when the bridge is crossed and when the Bosnian Serb army border control stops us. No, there are no more paramilitary units. They have all been incorporated into the official Bosnian Serb army. On the one hand this means that a local commander cannot let us go suddenly without asking anybody. Now it all depends on the higher command. On the other hand, the convoys are safer if they are allowed to pass through.

Our first three convoys in November and December last year had a very difficult time. The local inhabitants in Skelani and Bratunac were very hostile and greatly opposed to our passing through. This is understandable. We saw destroyed Serbian villages in the vicinity of Bratunac. It is difficult to accept that food is going to someone who perhaps killed your father. But we are a humanitarian organization, and consider it our duty to help all those who are threatened, regardless of which side they are fighting on. On December 15 we sent 17 trucks to evacuate Serbs from Bratunac and brought between 5,000-6,000 Serbs to Ljubovija. This is often forgotten.

The last few convoys fared better. They once even met us with bread and salt in Bratunac. This was after Radovan Karadzic (Bosnian Serb leader) personally intervened in Bratunac. He talked with the civilian and military authorities and told them to let us go. There is real anger and tension in Bratunac, but some of it has been instigated. The last few times the local population did not even show up when we passed through, but a latent tenseness is always there.

It was exceptionally important that we get to Srebrenica, Zepa and Gorazde, but contrary to what the Bosnian Serbs believe, we gave and give an enormous amount of aid to them too. Now our trucks go directly to Serbian regions in eastern Bosnia. Apart from this, we help over 600,000 refugees from Bosnia in Serbia. We reckon that about 15% of them are not of Serbian nationality.

In spite of all this, our trucks are checked several times. This greatly slows down matters, but is useful, because they see for themselves that we are not carrying arms. But, regardless of all these checks, whenever we reach our destination, the Bosnian Serb news agency SRNA, always brings an article saying that arms have been found in UNHCR trucks. They say that it is possible to see through field-glasses from a distance of 15 km how grenades are being taken out of fish cans."