From: malenovi@plains.NoDak.edu (Malenovic Nikola V.)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.yugoslavia
Subject: CSCE Delegation In the Role Of Witness ( VREME NDA 15 Sep 1992 )
Date: 15 Sep 92 22:01:58 GMT
Article-I.D.: plains.20373
Organization: North Dakota Higher Education Computing Network


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     "Vreme" News Digest Agency                  No. 51, September 14, 1992
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    CSCE Delegation In the Role Of Witness
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                          SUFFERING WITHOUT BOUNDARY


               Is there any chance of hostilities really ending?

    In less than a week, important  diplomats from Great Britain, the United
    States  of  America,  Canada,  France,  Switzerland,  Sweden  and Turkey
    visited Zagreb, Split, a part  of the Krajina, Trebinje, Sarajevo, Pale,
    Vlasenica, Zvornik, Bijeljina, Dubrovnik, parts of Herzegovina, Belgrade
    and the  mines in Aleksinac.  And what the  CSCE delegates saw  and what
    they  noted down  was not  pretty: there  in the  magical countryside of
    Bosnia, they were woken from the short-lived dream by the sight of burnt
    out and damaged houses.

    It  was  the  first  practical  move  made  by  Europe  since the London
    conference. "We came  from humane and humanitarian motives,  but also to
    remind all  the participants in  the conflict of  the existence of,  and
    obligations towards, the Geneva Convention on the rights of prisoners of
    war",  said the  chief of  the chosen  delegation, Sir  John Thomson,  a
    former member of the OUN Security Council. Although he had never been on
    Yugoslav  soil before,  the experienced  Scotsman quickly  understood to
    what degree this war has escalated and how difficult it will be to put a
    stop to the eruption of hatred  and consequent barbarism that has flowed
    out over the lovely valleys of Bosnia-Hercegovina.

    Traveling through  the Knin Krajina,  patrolled by both  the Knin police
    and  UNPROFOR soldiers,  an old  woman, owner  of a  restaurant in which
    there was nothing  to eat, offered the guests some  beer, the only thing
    she had.  Although taken out of  a fridge, the beer  was warm. There has
    been no electricity for the last  six months. There is none in Sarajevo,
    Banja Luka or on Mt. Jahorina. There  is not even water in the cafe "The
    Good Life".  But the problem is  not in electricity and  water, of which
    there  is none,  or industry  and agriculture,  which don't function, or
    even  in "the  good life".  It is  simply a  question of  life to  every
    individual inhabitant of Bosnia and  Hercegovina, whether they are Serb,
    Moslem or Croat in nationality.

    Adversaries are united in privation and misery. The only thing they have
    in adequate supply are weapons. It is rare for any person in these areas
    to move  around without a  pistol or gun.  It is almost  comical that in
    such a  situation the guards of  the B&H Presidency in  Sarajevo and the
    Serbian Presidency on  Pale require visitors to leave  their arms at the
    entrance. The old lady in Krajina was a Serb whose only wish was for the
    war to  end. An old  lady in  the  village of Svinjarevac,  who has lain
    paralyzed  for five  years and   who an  UNPROFOR soldier,  stationed in
    Vukovar, visits regularly with a  little food (she is Croatian), offered
    nothing by  her Serb neighbors "because  they have been forbidden  to by
    some civilians", longs for the same thing  "so that I can die in peace".
    How modest people's  wishes have become! And similar.  In Zvornik, where
    the delegation  were looking for  concentration camps, a  fresh group of
    Serbian refugees, old  men and women, were sitting  in the shade resting
    after an exhausting escape from Majevica. People run exclusively because
    they are Moslem, Serb or Croat, they  run in directions which seem to be
    marked by some kind of Mafia law, primarily the law of ethnic cleansing.
    Even if  the war were  to stop tomorrow,  it would be  very hard, if not
    impossible,  to draw  up any  kind  of  normal borders.  The only  thing
    without boundaries today is suffering, Moslem, Orthodox and Catholic.

    The Manjaca camp  still exists, though the conditions  in which a little
    over 3,000 prisoners live are better than they were a few weeks ago. The
    food is better, there is a little more water and a little less fear. The
    open camp of Trnopolje has no  barbed wire fences and prisoners can move
    freely around  the surrounding roads  and villages. The  problem is that
    "certain civilians" and "certain paramilitary bands" don't like this and
    show  their   dissatisfaction  in  crime   acts.  The  Serbian   Bosnian
    authorities are prepared to close this camp tomorrow, but where will the
    prisoners  go?  And  how  far?  Obviously,  without  foreign control and
    protection none of this will be possible or practical.

    Sarajevo, as always, is being shelled. A mortar exploded ten meters from
    the  author of  this text,  near to  the entrance  to the  main UNPROFOR
    headquarters. People die  at the market, in bread  queues. The hospitals
    are full,  stomachs empty. UNPROFOR  is criticized on  almost all sides,
    but nothing  is possible anymore without  UNPROFOR. With protection from
    UNPROFOR,  the  High  Commission  for  Refugees  delivers  food  to  the
    community centers  and nearby villages and  towns. Under the supervision
    of Englishman,  Larry Hollingworth, and his  dedicated associates Leila,
    Una  and  Vesna,  convoys  are  organized  to  isolated  places, even to
    Gorazde, while UNPROFOR  prepares to play the peacemaking  role of heavy
    arms controller.

    Is  there  any  chance  of  hostilities  really  ending?  In  unofficial
    statements, members of the delegation  not only sincerely hope there is,
    but  do not  exclude the  possibility. Not  so much  because of eventual
    changes to principles, but because of the approach of winter. Already in
    the past weeks, while  on the plains the sun has roasted,  in a hotel on
    Mount  Jahorina,  without  electricity  and  water,  the  members of the
    delegation covered themselves with thick blankets. How many thousands of
    people  will survive  the winter  in camps,  prisons, refugee  camps and
    trenches? Or in houses without windows or any possibility of heating?

    Sir John  and the members of  his mission also had  talks in Zagreb with
    Prime  Minister  Sarinic,  in  Sarajevo  with  President Izetbegovic and
    vice-president  Kljuic, on  Pale with  Radovan Karadzic,  in the Bosnian
    Krajina  with  Prime  Minister   Panic  and  President  Milosevic.  They
    understood all the problems. And because they understood they decided to
    return, like the  delegation from the UN Commission  for Human Rights, a
    week  earlier.  Unlike  many  former  Yugo-negotiators,  the  foreigners
    consider that problems can only be solved by talks and concessions.

    All  in  all,  one  shouldn't  overdo  the  bellicosity  and  bring down
    airplanes carrying blankets  and food from the outside  for the children
    of all  nationalities and religions. This  is where every war  and every
    negotiation stops. This is where serious war crimes begin.
                                                                 Leon Davico


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     "Vreme" News Digest Agency                  No. 51, September 14, 1992
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