DATE=8/8/2000
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=BOSNIA REFUGEES
NUMBER=5-46809
BYLINE=IRENA GUZELOVA
DATELINE=FOCA, BOSNIA
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Years after the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina,
more than one-million residents of that ethnically
divided country still live as refugees. They include
members of Bosnia's three principal ethnic groups --
Serbs, Croats and Muslims. The refugees have begun
staging protests against the slow pace of their return
to pre-war homes, but officials say the sheer number
of returnees threatens to overwhelm international aid
efforts. The refugees include an estimated 28-
thousand people who have been forced to camp out,
without any permanent shelter. Irena Guzelova
recently interviewed refugees camping near Foca,
southeast of Sarajevo, and has this report.
TEXT: Nura Dortnut leads us up a twisting mountain
track, past scorched houses, to a group of tents where
she has been camping since early April.
When Serb forces drove her out of her home near Foca,
in eastern Bosnia, in 1992 she walked seven days to
the relative safety of Sarajevo -- where she stayed
until early this year. But like thousands of other
refugees, she lived in someone else's quarters.
/// DORTNUT SERBIAN ACT--FADE TO TRANSLATION ///
Before she was living in a one-room apartment in
Sarajevo with her husband, who passed away, and
she was visited by someone who told her she
cannot continue to use that apartment, because
it belongs to someone else, and the best thing
for her is to return to her place of origin, and
she decided to return here.
/// END ACT ///
Hundreds of Muslims like Nura have returned to Serb
nationalist heartlands such as Foca -- scenes of some
of the worst wartime atrocities. It was here that
Serb irregulars, paramilitaries and the Bosnian Serb
army established a network of detention centers to
torture, rape and kill their opponents -- leaving the
area as it is today, almost completely Serb.
In the Serb villages around Foca the inhabitants don't
welcome the Muslims, but grudgingly realize they must
accept their return.
During the first five months this year, some 20-
thousand refugees have returned to areas controlled by
another ethnic group. That's three times as many as
returned in the same period last year.
A few dozen Muslim families have even returned to
villages surrounding Srebrenica, where Serbs
slaughtered over seven-thousand Muslim men five years
ago.
Nura Dortnut's neighbor, Dedomir Becic, says he came
back to reclaim his inheritance. He's now waiting for
someone to rebuild his house.
/// BECIC & TRANSLATOR ACT ///
I had a big wish and the courage to return here,
and to start a new life for myself. I wanted to
return to this land, which my father left me,
and I inherited from my farther, so I can give
my inheritance to my children.
/// END ACT ///
Bosnia's international administrators attach great
importance to the refugees' return. They say the
international community's efforts to wind down its
financial and military commitments to Bosnia --
without risking a renewed conflict -- are to a large
extent dependent on the success of the project.
The administrators have vigorously enforced
legislation that reinstates pre-war property rights,
and sent out thousands of eviction orders. They have
dismissed local officials who have obstructed the
refugees' return -- and who in many places organized
some of the worst ethnic cleansing.
Many other refugees are tired of waiting for lengthy
bureaucratic procedures, and are returning to reclaim
their properties on their own.
Barabara Smith, spokeswoman for the U-N High
Commission for Refugees, explains that the passage of
time is also beginning to heal wounds. Bosnians of
all nationalities are increasingly fed up with the
political posturing of their leaders, she says, and
want to get on with their lives.
/// 1ST SMITH ACT ///
Time does heal wounds and to quote the famous
quote, "You have to give time time," and I think
definitely in many areas mayors have sat down of
different ethnicities together, where we thought
we'd never get them to sit down together, and
that's been a very positive step towards return
in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
/// END ACT ///
But the number of refugees wishing to go back has
caught the international community off guard. Donor
aid is sufficient to support reconstruction of only 10
percent of the houses needed.
And despite the international presence, many local
leaders continue to assert their authority. People
living in Nura Dortnut's tent encampment say officials
in Foca offered to secure them housing - if they each
paid a sum equal to more than one-thousand dollars.
Tensions between refugees receiving eviction orders
and those coming back came to a head toward the end of
July. In the village of Janja, in eastern Bosnia,
eight people were injured when angry Serbs protested
against the planned evictions of three Serb families,
and pelted Muslim houses with stones. Elsewhere,
Muslims have had their homes and vehicles set alight.
Barabara Smith of the U-N refugee agency is concerned
that these incidents may hinder, or even derail, the
return process.
/// 2nd SMITH ACT ///
When these incidents happen, donors are less
likely to be willing to fund areas like that,
because for one reason or another they're afraid
that the returnees won't stay there, or they're
afraid that the shelters they've helped
reconstruct will be destroyed. This has
happened not only in Janje, which was an
incident which took place last week, but also in
the Srebrenica area. In Srebrenica, in the past
month we've had several arsons -- fires that
were [deliberately] set, and those were fires
that were set in the houses of Bosniak [Bosnian
Muslim] returnees which had been reconstructed.
We're concerned about this.
/// END ACT ///
The number of violent incidents may be low compared to
the number of returnees. But as Bosnia competes for
donor aid with other post-conflict areas, such as
Kosovo, the question of funding is likely to become
increasingly acute. (Signed)
NEB/IG/WTW/KL
09-Aug-2000 11:51 AM EDT (09-Aug-2000 1551 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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