Serbs Thwart Muslims’ Attempt to Return Home

Hundreds of Muslim refugees trying to go home clashed Sunday with hundreds of Serbs trying to stop them in what aid officials warned is a sign of escalating tensions over the ability to move freely in peacetime Bosnia.

It was the second such violent incident in three days. Both ended only when NATO-led peacekeepers fired weapons--and in Sunday’s episode received an assist from U.S. military helicopters that eventually quieted the crowds.

Refugees from all sides of the conflict have been repeatedly thwarted in efforts to return to the villages and farms from which they were expelled at the beginning of the war four years ago. The U.S.-brokered Dayton, Ohio, peace accord guarantees the right of refugees to return home across internal boundaries now separating Serbian territory from Muslim-Croat areas in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

But, according to U.N. refugee officials, in nine out of 10 attempts, local authorities have blocked the returns.

With spring thawing the countryside, refugees are becoming increasingly impatient, aid workers said. But local Bosnian Serb authorities, especially, view the boundaries as borders across which they will not permit Muslims and Croats to cross, in violation of the peace accord.

The failure of the 60,000-strong North Atlantic Treaty Organization-led peacekeeping mission to enforce this provision of the peace plan--freedom of movement and the right of refugees to return home--underscores the continued influence of hard-liners such as Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic.

Karadzic continues to exert control from his headquarters in Pale, east of the capital, Sarajevo, despite his indictment on war crimes charges and Western efforts to marginalize him.

Civilian mediators said they have tried to persuade Bosnian Serb mayors to allow refugees to come home. But each time, the mediators said, the mayors say they have “instructions from Pale” not to cooperate.

In Sunday’s incident, several hundred Muslims tried to enter the Serb-held city of Doboj, according to NATO spokesman Maj. Artur Golawski. They were met by several hundred Serbs, one waving a black flag with skull and crossbones. The Serbs were led by Doboj’s Serbian mayor, Drago Ljubicic, and rallied by calls from Radio Doboj, controlled by Karadzic, to “defend the city.”

The two groups began hurling rocks and insults at each other, and rocks were then thrown at Danish NATO peacekeepers who were trying to separate the two sides, Golawski said in an interview from Doboj. As the crowds became more belligerent, the peacekeepers fired weapons into the air, but to no avail. Only when two U.S. helicopters buzzed the site did the Muslims and Serbs disperse, Golawski said.

On Friday, Czech peacekeepers fired into the air to defuse a tense standoff between Serbs and Muslims in northwestern Bosnia-Herzegovina. On Sunday, Bosnian Serbs stoned two buses carrying Croatian refugees near the northern city of Modrica, U.N. officials said. Serbian refugees, meanwhile, attempted to enter the Croat-held town of Drvar in western Bosnia.