March 1, 1996
As Sarajevo Declares Siege Over, Serbs Still Pack
By KIT R. ROANE
LIJAS, Bosnia-Herzegovina -- In the early hours of Thursday, when Muslim-Croat Federation police entered this town and the Bosnian government formally declared the siege of Sarajevo over, Joka Gajic prepared for one last visit to her heart doctor.
The trip to the center of Ilijas was important to her because she knew that as soon as the federation police arrived, the doctor would be gone. Then she herself would finish packing and travel to friends in territory still held by the Bosnian Serbs.
She was not leaving because she feared the federation or its police. Indeed, as the day progressed, the 42-year-old mother greeted many of them. But with no utilities or open shops, and only about 100 people left in Ilijas, she felt there was little reason to stay.
"I am moving because everyone else is gone and my child will have no one to play with," she said. "The federation police are OK. They are human beings like everyone else. And in a way, I look forward to seeing them because some will be old friends. But I can't stay here anymore, because nothing is left."
On Thursday, as Ilijas became the second of five suburbs of Sarajevo to be transferred from Bosnian Serb control to that of the Muslim-Croat federation, the Bosnian government declared the official end of the siege of Sarajevo. Ilijas lies on what had been the last Serbian-held portion of the road linking the capital to government-held Tuzla.
But the transfer also touched off one more migration of Serbs, further undermining the federation's presumption of inclusion.
In Vogosca, a Sarajevo suburb that changed hands last week, only about 600 Bosnian Serbs remain, according to the U.N. high commissioner for refugees. And in the last three suburbs to be handed over by March 19, Serbs continue to stream out of town.
No longer is it the fear of retribution that drives most of this migration; but the exodus continues, seemingly based on the dread of being left behind in a moribund town.
"I got the leaflet telling us to stay, but for what?" asked Doko Savic, 53, as he stood across from the police station and watched two Bosnian government flags unfurled from the second story.
"I am a machinist but I will never have a job here again, because everything is destroyed and the community is gone," he said. "If the international community cared about us staying, they would have handed out chocolate to children and milk to mothers. I don't think too much of leaflets."
So far, the effort to get Bosnian Serbs to stay in the towns being handed over to federation control has not had much success, and there are at present no new plans to halt the migration. Residents of Grbavica, Ilidza, and Hadzici will receive the same leaflets and broadcasts as the Serbs in Vogosca and Ilijas.
Kris Janowski, a spokesman for the U.N. high commissioner for refugees, said that probably only local Serbian leaders could keep people from leaving.
One such group was organized this week in Ilidza and was headed by the town's Serbian mayor. But the membership of the new group, the Democratic Initiative for Sarajevo Serbs, is unknown. Only a few thousand residents are left to join anyway.
