Bosnian Serb Troops Aid Fleeing Civilians

About 70 Bosnian Serb army vehicles rolled into this gloomy industrial suburb of Sarajevo on Monday. But unlike countless other military actions over the past four years, the assault was waged with cardboard boxes and dollies instead of guns and bombs.

In an unprecedented effort to calm the chaotic exodus from the Serb-populated outskirts of Bosnia-Herzegovina’s capital, the military trucks were permitted to cross government territory and enter this demilitarized zone, which is fast emptying of its Bosnian Serb inhabitants.

During the war, Ilijas was a center of fierce Bosnian Serb rebellion, with as many as 1,000 men from the town killed on the front lines. This time, the military mission was as benign as it was humiliating: Collect the possessions of residents desperate to leave before Thursday, when Muslim-Croat federation police move in.

“The civilian truck drivers have been afraid to go, but now drivers have been drafted to go by the military,” said Srecko Jankovic, a Bosnian Serb official who helped organize one early morning convoy. “I started this war defending my people, and I will end it defending my people.”

Still, NATO officials said, more than 100 available vehicles did not join the rescue effort for lack of drivers, many of whom were afraid of being arrested by Muslim-Croat federation police. Earlier, the police had set up checkpoints along the route, but NATO and U.N. police said Monday that they had demanded their removal.

The first convoy of military trucks was launched in confusion at the Lukavica army barracks south of Sarajevo. Once a proud symbol of Bosnian Serb military might--the barracks were a key target of NATO air strikes at the end of the war--they are now a collection point for panicked refugees.

“I cannot even recognize myself, I am so exhausted,” said Mirjana Sakovic, a widow and mother of three. “I can’t even think of the future. It will be nothing like it should be.”

North Atlantic Treaty Organization troops patrolled the route from Lukavica to this northwestern suburb. Although no major incidents were reported, a last-minute decision by NATO commanders not to allow military vehicles into Vogosca--a nearby suburb already transferred to federation police control--left residents there feeling betrayed and abandoned.

A NATO official said the decision, which ran contrary to plans announced by NATO commander Adm. Leighton W. Smith, was made to avoid provoking the Muslim-led Bosnian government. By March 19, all five Serb-populated suburbs will revert to government control.

Bosnian Serb Gen. Dragomir Milosevic consented to the change, the NATO official said, but as a compromise, civilian trucks bound for Vogosca were permitted to join the convoy. Residents, however, said they were never told of the switch.

“Where are the trucks? I have been waiting since 7 this morning,” said Zora Velimirovic, sobbing in the entryway to her apartment. “I don’t know what to do anymore.”

The trucks were arriving down the road in Ilijas, but many residents of that town said they felt no more secure in their destiny because far too few vehicles had come.

“I don’t know why I am not yet on the list,” said Slobodanka Djekic, a young mother and widow. “I want to take my husband’s coffin with me, but I don’t know how.”