From: draskovi@usc.edu (Zoran Draskovic)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.yugoslavia
Subject: Yu
Date: 22 Jul 1992 23:40:06 -0700
Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: girtab.usc.edu

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RTw  07/21 1648  REFUGEE CONVOY TAKES SERBS BACK TO CROATIA, BOSNIA
    By Gorana Kukic
    BELGRADE, July 21, Reuter - A  convoy of 40 buses left Belgrade on Tuesday
carrying 2,000 Serbs back to the homes they fled in Bosnia and Croatia when the
former Yugoslav republics erupted in ethnic war.
    Carrying mostly women, children and old men, the convoy highlighted the
plight of innocent victims of all ethnic groups caught in areas that turned into
battlezones after the Yugoslav federation of six republics splintered into
separate parts.
    "I am returning to ashes. I watched my house burning. It was on October 9. I
will never forget that sight," said Jovan Zivkovic from a village in northern
Croatia , his voice breaking, tears in his eyes.
    Like other displaced persons in the convoy, 60-year-old Zivkovic has been
clamouring to return.
    "People were coming to us and begging for help. They wanted to go back
home," a Yugoslav Red Cross official said.
    The Yugoslav Red Cross, together with Serbia's authorities, has already
organised four convoys taking people to Banja Luka, in Bosnia-Herzegovina and
Knin and Glina, towns in Serb-held regions of Croatia.
    "We have been away for 10 months now. We are going back. I fled with my
daughter-in-law and three grandchildren. My son was wounded in fighting. He is
returning with us too," said Nada, a 67-year-old woman from Vrhovine, near Knin.
    "I feel like being born again. I am happy but wish to cry at the same time.
I had to leave, because I was scared for my three-month-old son," said Nada's
daughter-in-law, 38.
    "If everything starts again, I will just send my children away, but I will
stay and fight. I am not going to run away."
    According to the Serbian Red Cross there are more than 380,000 refugees
registered in Serbia, 80,000 of them children aged between one and 15 years.
    "I've never thought this (ethnic war) would happen. We used to live like
good neighbours. I do not hate Croats. I feel sorry for all those innocent
people. We should all cool down and begin to live a normal life together," said
one refugee.
    Some were not so optimistic about living with Croats together in peace
again.
    "I will teach my children not to trust them (Croats), as I did," said one.
    "I wake up every night shivering. And I see my houses burning again,"
Zivkovic said." I am going home, even if I have to sleep outdoors."
    The office of the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the U.N.'s main
refugee agency,  has reported a total of 2.4 million people driven from their
homes in the fighting that followed the break-up of the former Yugoslav state.
    The UNHCR has called a one-day conference in Geneva on July 29 to discuss
how the world can handle what it describes as the worst refugee crisis in Europe
since World War Two.
Newsgroups: soc.culture.yugoslavia