premise: Realising that every Serb vote will count, the media in Eastern Slavonia spent Saturday urging people to go to the polls, even if they had already decided that they did not want to stay under Croatian rule.
  "If you have decided to leave, then leave but vote beforehand and give your vote to assure the future of the young," read one of the slogans.
  International officials have expressed fears that up to 20,000 Serbs could go.
  The hesitation shown by their leadership has contributed to the Serbs' confusion, who feel betrayed by Milosevic, the architect of the dream of a "Greater Serbia" -- a state where all Serbs would live.
  Last Sunday, the Serbs voted in a referendum in which they overwhelmingly called for their territory to be one unit, in defiance of the Croat electoral boundaries which split the region.
   What will the Serbs gain by voting before they leave?
hypothesis: assure the future of the young