February 22, 1996

Bosnian Serbs Continue Exodus From Sarajevo Suburbs

By STEPHEN KINZER

ARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina -- The exodus of fearful Serbs from their homes around Sarajevo continued on Wednesday, with caravans of trucks and overloaded automobiles clogging the icy roads that lead toward Serbian-controlled regions of Eastern Bosnia.

Hundreds of families fled, trusting their instincts and their leaders rather than U.N. assurances that they would be treated fairly after the Muslim-dominated government takes control of the suburbs in the coming days.

Radio broadcasts from Pale the Bosnian Serb headquarters, kept up warnings that life would be impossible for ethnic Serbs after Bosnian government police arrive.

Kris Janowski, a spokesman for the U.N. high commissioner for refugees, said: "People seem to be listening to Pale radio and Pale TV, and seem to believe a lot of what is being said to them," he said. "Pale is ranting every day, trying to discredit the international community and portray it as the enemy of the Serb people."

In the northern suburb of Vogosca, where government police are scheduled to arrive on Friday, angry residents screamed curses at Mayor Rajko Koprivica after he told them he could not produce the trucks they demanded for their evacuation.

"Please be calm," he begged the volatile crowd. "Yesterday someone tried to punch me, and I was spat on."

A man shouted in reply: "You'll get worse than that today if you don't find a way to move us out of here!"

U.N. monitors, who are to supervise the arriving police, told the Bosnian Serbs: "You can stay here as long as you like," one of the monitors said. "There's no need to leave at all."

Men and women in the crowd jeered in disbelief.

Serbs in Vogosca and other suburbs have developed a bitter enmity toward Muslims during more than three years of war, and many of the younger ones fought against them in battle. They believe they run the risk of arrest or worse if they wait for the government police, nearly all of whom will presumably be Muslim.

"You would have a hard time finding a name on the list that is Croat or Serb," conceded Alexander Ivanko, a U.N. spokesman.

On government-controlled Sarajevo television on Wednesday evening, an announcer said that the Muslim-Croatian Federation, which governs most of Bosnia-Herzegovina, does not want Serbs to leave the Sarajevo suburbs.

"Don't abandon your homes," the announcer said. "The federation will guarantee your safety."

This is the first time such a statement has come from the government, and the apparent ambivalence of government leaders has led to speculation that they do not entirely regret the exodus.

"There is a school of thought here that they would just as soon see the Serbs go" and then try to forge a Bosnian state, a Western diplomat said in an interview on Wednesday. "No one is coming out and saying this to us. We just get the sense that some people feel this way."

Snow fell steadily on Sarajevo and the surrounding suburbs on Wednesday, making movement difficult for the trucks and buses that Bosnian Serb leaders had promised the refugees.

The senior Bosnian Serb political leader, Radovan Karadzic, asserted that the refugees were leaving of their own accord, not because they had been frightened by radio or television broadcasts.

"Our wish was to have them stay in Sarajevo," Karadzic told reporters. "However, they do not feel safe and secure. The international community is not giving them enough guarantees. It does not give them the right to have their own authorities and police."