February 25, 1996

NATO to Let Bosnia Serb Army Aid Exodus

By STEPHEN KINZER

OGOSCA, Bosnia-Herzegovina -- Convinced that Serbs who remain in Sarajevo's suburbs are determined to flee rather than submit to the Muslim-dominated government, NATO on Saturday agreed to allow the Bosnian Serb army to send trucks to transport them out.

Relief agencies, including the U.N. High Commission for Refugees, had refused to help Serbs leave, saying doing so would be tacit support for a form of "ethnic cleansing." But NATO's commander in Bosnia, Adm. Leighton Smith, said after touring Vogosca and other suburbs that since Serbs are leaving anyway, their flight should be made as painless as possible.

"There will be Bosnian Serb military vehicles allowed, but there won't be many of them allowed, and they will be only for the purpose of assisting the people in a humanitarian effort," Smith said. "These people, Serbs, have obviously taken the decision to leave. They've got a hell of a problem trying to make that happen. I believe that by doing this, we will reduce the tension. We will show some compassion."

Even an appeal by a senior Bosnian Serb leader Saturday failed to persuade Serbs that they should stay in the suburbs. The leader, Momcilo Krajisnik, speaker of the Bosnian Serb parliament, spoke to an agitated crowd of about 200 Serbs in Vogosca's town hall.

"I don't want you to leave," he began. But angry Serbs quickly shouted him down, saying the only thing they wanted from him was trucks.

"I see that you don't want to stay," Krajisnik conceded. "In that case, you should leave as soon as possible. I will do everything I can to help you."

Thousands of Serbs have flooded out of Vogosca and other Sarajevo suburbs in recent days, preferring to face rugged trips and highly uncertain futures rather than live under a non-Serbian government.

The transition to government rule in Vogosca, mandated by the peace accord negotiated last year in Dayton, Ohio, began on Friday with the arrival of 32 police officers and the raising of the Bosnian flag over the town hall.

Bosnian Serb radio and television stations had urged Serbs to flee, and Krajisnik's unconvincing appeal Saturday came only after U.N. and NATO officials had strongly condemned the weeklong media campaign.

The crowd that packed Vogosca's town hall and spilled over into the streets was alive with rumors. Many believed that the town's former Serbian mayor, Rajko Koprivica, had been arrested.

That proved untrue, but Koprivica had harsh words for the newly arrived police officers, who he said had prevented residents, including his wife, from entering his town hall office.

"They don't respect anything," he asserted. "I'm going home to pack, like everyone else."

Government police officers are supposed to be accompanied by U.N. monitors wherever they go, but that rule is not being fully observed. One woman in the town hall crowd said she had seen three unsupervised officers walking through the corridors of her apartment building.

Another woman, who gave her name only as Miriam, said a Muslim officer knocked at her door late Friday night, told her that his family had once lived in an adjoining apartment, and asked to be let in to see it.

"It was very upsetting for me," Miriam said. "I'm afraid to be alone at night. If they act this way on the first day, what do you think they'll be doing in 10 days?"

The chief of the 70-member U.N. monitoring force, Patrick Fitzgerald, did not deny that such incidents could have occurred.

"I would love to say to you that we have been watching every single one of these officers every moment of the day and night, but I can't do that," Fitzgerald said. "We're doing the best we can with the people we have. I had men on 24-hour shifts starting at midnight Thursday, and I've had to give them time to sleep. There have been no arrests and to my knowledge no searches, but more than that I just can't say for sure."

At a Red Cross warehouse where elderly residents were being given relief supplies Saturday, three government police officers were standing guard without a U.N. monitor or NATO soldier in sight. They wore the government's dark green police uniforms, and their caps bore the government's fleur-de-lis insignia. A name tag with a photo portrait hung from each man's neck.

"How would you feel if you had to work among people who hate you?" asked one of the officers, Nazad Omanovic, 25, who until last week served on the Sarajevo police force. "It's going to take a lot to show these people that we are not so bad, if any of them stay around to find out."

Another of the officers, Senad Pintol, was born in Vogosca and lived here until 1992. He and his family were among Muslims expelled by Serbs when they established control of the area.

"In a month, the Muslim families who used to live here will start coming back," Pintol said. "My own family will come back, of course. I knew this moment would come. We showed that in the end, we are stronger than the Serbs. I think they're gone for good."

A senior British officer attached to the NATO force, Brig. Andrew Cumming, said he had heard of "Serb gangs in the area who were placing people who wanted to stay under considerable threat." In the crowd that packed town hall Saturday, however, it seemed that no threats were needed to persuade Serbs to leave.

"Everyone is telling us to stay, but I'm leaving," said a 55-year-old man who has lived in Vogosca for 16 years. "I don't want promises; I just want a truck. It doesn't matter where I go as long as I'm under a Serbian tree."

Many of the refugees who have poured out of Vogosca and other suburbs traveled first to the Bosnian Serb headquarters town of Pale and then on to eastern Bosnia. Bosnian Serb police refused to allow journalists to follow the refugees to Bratunac, Visegrad and other eastern Bosnian towns where they have set up reception centers.

In Pale, hundreds of refugees spent the night in cars and trucks while deciding where to go next.

"I don't have any idea what to do now, and I don't even know where I'm going to sleep tonight," said a man who fled Vogosca with his wife and baby. "But I'm happy because I got out."

The next Sarajevo suburb to come under government control will be Ilijas, where the Bosnian Serb police are scheduled to be replaced by government officers Thursday. In Ilijas on Saturday, people were packing their belongings onto trucks and cars, preparing for an exodus that may not be as dramatic as last week's mass flight from Vogosca but which will probably empty the town just as completely.

"I'll leave in a truck, or if we don't find a truck, I'll leave some other way," said an elderly Ilijas woman. "Nobody's going to stay."