Bosnian Serbs Block Refugee Visits

In another blow to the freedom of movement supposedly guaranteed in Bosnia’s peace accord, two Serbian mobs on Sunday turned back busloads of Muslim and Croatian refugees who wanted to see their homes and family graves for the first time since being driven out in 1992.

Several Muslims were injured at Potocani, in northern Bosnia, when Serbs stoned two buses carrying about 100 Muslims.

Meanwhile, about 200 Bosnian Croats aboard two buses bound for the Bosnian Serb-controlled town of Teslic failed to get through.

The buses were initially stopped because a bridge had been destroyed overnight, reportedly by Serbs opposed to the visit.

The two buses, escorted by Bosnian Serb police, U.N. refugee agency personnel and U.N. police monitors, then took an alternative route but were stopped again by a few dozen Serbs “waving clubs and flags,” refugee agency spokesman Kris Janowski said.