New Rules for Refugees

The reception center for refugees in Banja Koviljaca is deserted. Only one Serb from Tuzla had reached it so far, but even he had to return to the Serb Republic in Bosnia-Herzegovina immediately, because he did not have all the necessary papers. The story about what will befall refugees in the future began in early April, when the so-called Obligatory instruction was made public. This is an internal document of the Commission for Refugees, which informs its commissioners what criteria will be applied in the future for the recognition of a refugee status ("the future" started on May 1).

The most important information in this document is a decree which denies refugee status to all refugees who have arrived from the areas where there is currently no war action, as well as to those who come from one of the 56 municipalities in Bosnia-Herzegovina, which are now "in the ownership" of the Serb Republic in B-H. In other words, if somebody wants to flee from Banjaluka, Zvornik, Visegrad, Bijeljina, Trebinje, Bileca, Pale, Skelane, Foca, Nevesinje,...they will have to seek shelter in some other country, and not in Serbia.

"That is nothing dramatically new," is how Slobodan Popovic of the Serbian Government's Commission for Refugees commented on the Obligatory instruction. He also added that none of the preconditions for the people of Bratunac to be treated as refugees are valid. "It's as if they came from Nis," he said. According to Popovic, the major undertaking regarding the denying of refugee status when it comes to the people who are already in Serbia as refugees will take place by the end of this or at the beginning of next month, when the Commission for Refugees plans to revise the status of refugees. All those who wish to stay in Serbia as refugees will then have to prove that none of the decrees, which deny them refugee status, apply to them. Moreover, the Commission also intends to impose the "principle of self-organization" in the reception centers, which would, as they hope, subject the refugees to a sort of "work duty". Even though they lack accurate data, the commission is counting on some 50-60,000, out of about 350,000 refugees from Bosnia, who meet conditions for being denied refugee status. The Commission also says that this figure should not be taken too seriously since women and children, who make up the majority of refugees, will most probably not be threatened with a danger of having to return to Bosnia, that is to the Serb Republic in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Of the moves, with which the Commission intends to impose order among the refugees, the summing up of reception centers represents the most significant one. Instead of 200 centers so far, there will be only four of them in the future (the one in Banja Koviljaca, and then in Sombor, Uzice and Sremska Mitrovica). Thus, instead of going wherever they want to and reporting to the authorities only afterwards, the refugees will first have to show up at one of the receptions centers (in places close to the border), from where they will be sent either to their relatives, if they have any, or to the places, which the authorities have allotted to them.

Owing to the fact that the new rules of conduct came into effect as recently as on May 1, the results of the new policy towards the refugees can still not be seen in Serbia, with an exception of several cases. On the Sepacki most border crossing the reporters of VREME were not able to notice any differences in the treatment of those arriving from the Serb Republic in B-H, or going there. One policeman was even kind enough to get up and lift the ramp in front of a truck "from the other side of the Drina River." "I'll give him a hand. I know he doesn't have it easy," he called to his colleagues, as he did it. But, the crowds in front of the porter's booth in the Commission for Refugees in Belgrade only go to prove that the new Government decrees will be applied. The people were trying to enter the building and to talk to those in charge, but all they managed to do is to upset the porter, who kept shouting in an agitated voice, "Thousands of you come here every day, and I have to explain to every single one of you, that you need a certificate issued in your former place of residence." We also tried to find out in the Commission what will happen if the Vance-Owen plan is signed and some of the place mentioned in the Obligatory instruction go to the Muslim or Croat side, but we were told that the issue will be on the agenda only if something like that happens. At the same time, those who are closer to the border believe that the whole business of imposing order among refugees will fall through if Bosnia is bombarded. "The people will then swarm into Serbia, and no one will be able to stop them," we were told by a person who works with refugees in Banja Koviljaca.

The whole story is much too new to the refugees so that they could react to it. Nevertheless, one refugee who is a lawyer has told us the following, "Bijeljina is now peaceful and safe for the Serbs. But, this does not mean that it is peaceful and safe for the Muslims as well. Will, therefore, Yugoslavia turn back to Bijeljina both the Serbs and the Muslims from that area? Moreover, I wonder how come Serbia, as a neutral state, has the right to evaluate the military and political situation of another country? That is very much the same as if Italy made a list of towns which are according to their assessments safe for the Bosnian refugees and then started selective expulsion."