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Saturday, October 21, 2000

Only demonstration in Brcko
is small and peaceful

By Gregory Piatt
Bosnia bureau

BRCKO, Bosnia and Herzegovina — There was only a small, peaceful student demonstration here on Friday as U.S. peacekeepers, international and local police in armored vehicles and Humvees were on the streets.

This was a break for the city in the northeast portion of the U.S. sector in Bosnia that has had hundreds of Serbian students protesting the use of high schools by Muslim students for the past three days.

A U.S. Army officer with the SFOR peacekeeping mission at nearby Camp McGovern said the streets were quiet because busloads of students were turned away from the town.

"Two buses were stopped today," said Maj. Greg Butts, the chief of operations at Camp McGovern.

"They were turned backed because they didn’t have a reason to be in Brcko."

Some peacekeepers, who asked not to be named, said there were about 25 protesters on Friday in front of buildings occupied by the international community, but otherwise it had been a peaceful day in Brcko.

Peacekeepers are trying to keep outside parties out of the town to ensure local protests don’t get out of control, Butts said.

Authorities ordered secondary schools closed on Thursday and Friday to try and defuse tensions.

Teachers and parents were told to attend ethnic tolerance classes on Tuesday in an attempt to weed out adults who might be pressing the students to demonstrate.

During Thursday’s demonstration, students marched through the town carrying Serbian banners, stoning Muslim homes and businesses and pelting a U.S. convoy of Humvees with eggs. Ten arrests were made.

Brcko has long been considered one of the most serious potential flash points in the country since the Dayton peace agreement was signed in 1995 ending the 31/2-year ethnic civil war.

Since the Dayton accord was signed, Serbs and Muslims in the country that is divided into the Serb Republic and the Muslim-Croat Federation have argued over the control of Brcko.

Last year, international officials, who oversee the country of more than 3 million people, determined that Brcko would fall under a multiethnic administration.

The decision has angered both Serbs and Muslims, who insist on exclusive control.

Garry Matthews, the international supervisor for Brcko, said extreme Bosnian Serb politicians were behind the protests.

Other international officials said the extreme parties are trying to stir up ethnic hatred before the country’s national election Nov. 11.

But Butts said that SFOR doesn’t expect violence and demonstrations to increase leading up to the vote.

"We expect the elections to go off smoothly," he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.