Women Storm Red Cross in Bosnian Town

Several hundred anguished Muslim women whose male relatives have been missing since July attacked the office of the International Committee of the Red Cross here Monday, heaving bricks and brandishing as weapons the sticks they had brought to hold banners.

It was the first violent demonstration in Tuzla, headquarters for the U.S. troops deployed in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and the first attack on the Red Cross, which is monitoring the release of prisoners and reunification of families in the former Yugoslav federation.

The women, wearing traditional head scarves and billowy trousers, broke windows of the building and of vehicles outside and then forced their way through a double set of glass doors to gain entrance to the building.

The small contingent of local police charged with controlling the crowd was helpless against the mournful rage of the women. Police said the mob included some men.

The demonstration started at 11 a.m. as a peaceful protest against the slow pace of the international effort to provide information on thousands of men missing since the fall of Srebrenica, a mostly Muslim enclave in eastern Bosnia that fell to Bosnian Serb fighters in the summer. Residents were brutally expelled from the city--a U.N.-designated “safe area”--and survivors of the onslaught reported mass killings at the hands of the rebels in what is believed to be the worst atrocity committed in the Bosnian war. The number of missing in the incident has been estimated at 7,000 to 8,000.

Monday’s protest turned violent when the women, tormented by thoughts that their loved ones may have died in a massacre, unleashed emotions pent up during months of uncertainty spent in crowded apartments and refugee camps.

“I am angry because I have been left alone,” said Fatima Muic, 36, who lost a husband, two sons, a father and a brother. “The Red Cross promises help to us, but they didn’t go anywhere and didn’t do anything. Nobody cares about us.”

As dusk fell on the city, scores of women continued to occupy the headquarters and others blockaded a major thoroughfare in downtown Tuzla, holding a 20-foot-long sign that read: “Where are our sons, brothers, fathers and husbands?”

The women’s actions reflected their sense of betrayal by the international community. Many of them recalled with bitterness the false sense of security they had in “safe” Srebrenica. But then Serbian soldiers captured the city and separated men and boys from the women.

“We want our men dead or alive,” said Fatima Huseinovic, the president of the group of women. “It has been 200 days since the fall of Srebrenica. . . . The International Red Cross has only registered 200 people. We feel in our hearts that the International Committee of the Red Cross is on the Serbian side.”

The Red Cross condemned the women’s protest and accused Bosnia’s Muslim-led government of inciting their aggression by repeatedly blaming the organization for the lack of information about the missing.

Before the demonstration turned violent, Laurent Fellay, the head of the Red Cross’ Tuzla delegation, invited a small group into the building to talk.

Two dozen women, many with eyes red from crying and some with fresh tears on their cheeks, vented their rage at Fellay.

“Why haven’t you been able to find out already? It has been seven months,” said Jasmina Hadzibulic, 23, who lost her brother and father in the fall of Srebrenica.

“I understand your anger,” Fellay told the women, in a voice full of gravity and compassion. “I understand that you are desperate. I don’t want to give you false hopes. I can’t promise we will find all of your loved ones.”

He said the Red Cross knows that about 5,000 men and boys tried to escape Srebrenica across the Serbian front into government-held areas and are missing. The Red Cross has tracked down only 200 of them; held by Bosnian Serb forces, they were scheduled to be released in prisoner exchanges over the weekend, but Fellay was not certain of their whereabouts.

Over the last three days, Bosnia’s formerly warring factions have released most of their prisoners registered with the Red Cross.

News of the releases--but not of the whereabouts of their own loved ones--further incensed the women at the Red Cross office.

Many women said they suspect most of the men from Srebrenica are among the thousands thought to be buried near the city in mass graves, and that they will not have peace until they know for sure.

“If no one else is going to dig them out, we will do it--with our hands if we have to,” said Sehida Abdurahmanovic, 41.