ON THE CURSED BOSNIAN LAND (3)

CORRIDOR (ORASJE, GUNJA, BRCKO)

AIM, SARAJEVO, JULY 10, 1994

If it were not for the lowered ramp and nondescript looking containers representing an improvised border crossing on the Croatian side, on the very bank of the Sava river, you would probably not know that you were leaving Croatia and crossing over to a new state, Bosnia. For, on both sides, here in Zupanja and also on the other side, in Orasje, the picture is the same: policemen and border-guards in the same uniforms, with displayed chequered-flags, between which only the better informed can distinguish the emblem of Herzeg - Bosnia and the one of the Republic of Croatia, the Croatian flag is displayed on all the more visible places, the car registration plates are almost identical, Croats are on both banks...Obviously, the border represents a symbolic gesture, the drawing of a demarcation line between something that cannot be separated.

We board a dilapidated ferry, the only possible link with Orasje, one of the important small towns located in that tiny pocket, under Croatian control, abutting on the notorious Serbian corridor. While the ferrymen do their job routinely and a mass of people throngs this small space, I look at the blown up bridge on the Sava to our left. Only a part of the construction has remained - the river has long ago swallowed the rest.

• If you could only imagine the fireworks we had. The walls shook from detonations. Only when the bridge was destroyed did we realize that we were really at war - explains a passenger to me, probably seeing my interested look which could not conceal that I was new to these parts. I have been travelling through Bosnia a long time, I have seen all sorts of evil, but I always again wonder how man (can he be called that?) in only a few seconds destroys what he built for months and years. The ferry creaked, and then bumped into the other bank.

Inspection of documents again. - What is the situation like these days? Is there shelling - I ask the policeman. - Two or three shells hit the outskirts of the city two evenings ago, otherwise it is peaceful. There are some skirmishes on the first frontlines, but we have already got used to that.

And, indeed, in Orasje itself there are not many visible traces of destruction. The fighting is evidently several kilometers farther along the very edge of the Serbian corridor. The town is unusually lively. My companion, a foreign national, is surprised that the market is full of everything. - They always mention Orasje on Croatian news and say how it is dangerous here. I thought that I wouldn't see anyone in the street. I least expected to see people selling and buying. This market is excellently supplied.

I explain that the proximity of Croatia is the reason that these people do not lack anything: from food to military support. That is probably the answer to why Serbian forces did not manage to take this small pocket in the war so far. Nevertheless, tree trunks piled beside many houses here show that they still reckon with war.

In the barracks there my companion tries to find some acquaintances. The Moslems and Croats here have mostly good relations, they have been fighting shoulder to shoulder from the beginning, although because of the proximity of Croatia and their superiority in numbers it is clear that the Croats have the main say in this region. A smiling girl, the cook, welcomes us. While offering us coffee according to old custom, she tells us her story. - I am from Bosanski Brod. We first felt what war was. They attacked us from all sides. Those in Sarajevo were still singing at peace concerts making believe that they saw nothing, while we were already leaving our homes. And for two years now, since the city fell into Serbian hands, I have been in Orasje. - Everyone is saying that the decisive battle for the corridor will soon start. Do you expect the war to go on? - You can be sure that it will start again. You cannot trust them. - But, they say that it has been peaceful for a long time now. Heavy shelling has stopped long ago. - I don't believe that. It is important what our Army can do. A few days ago we destroyed three of their pillboxes. In the middle of the shift, when they least expected it. That's what the Serbs are like, they should all be killed - she says with no trace of emotion.

I think about the cruelty of this war: family people, peaceful until yesterday turned into fighters, hatred has overtaken people like cancer, uncontrollably eating them from within, everything has lost meaning. They dream only of revenge, hate the "others", over the front sights of their rifles. The only vital determinant is one's name and surname, the accidental fact that you are, for instance, a Serb, a Croat or a Moslem.

A dark woman enters the room, and introduces herself as Munevera. - She was in a camp. She had to wear a band around her arm, showing that she was a Moslem. - That's true, the humiliation hurt me most. The fact that we were branded like cattle. And people with whom we lived until yesterday did that to us. It was hard, but fortunately I survived and endured.

How many such awful testimonies are there in the Bosnian war? Tragic destinies one beside another. I have not yet met a man in Bosnia who does not have his own, sad story. All the pain of the world in only one place.

We say goodbye and go to the command of the Croatian Defence Council. A big crowd and many guards. We learn the reason: General Milivoj Petkovic has come from the far away Grude to tour this hot region. Talks are underway so that no one can enter. Who knows, maybe they are just developing a strategy of the battle for the corridor?

Again by ferry to the other bank. I cannot get rid of the impression that the Croatian media are really "overblowing" the situation in this part of the Bosnian war theatre. Nevertheless, I have seen places worse off.

We decide to drop by at Gunje, a hamlet on the Croat side, exactly opposite Brcko. The hamlet is separated from this city of strategic importance for the Serbs, by the just destroyed construction of a once beautiful, metal bridge. I know this region well. I did my military service in Brcko in the former YPA. Probably no region was more hospitable to soldiers than this one.

I look across the river, at the outlines of the city some two to three hundred meters away, well known silos, houses beside the river. Who could ever imagine that this small town would once have such an important role in war and be crucial for the survival of the Serbian corridor?

The echoes of several detonations can be heard from afar. The villagers explain what I already knew: the front line is only several kilometers from the city. They say that the B&H Army pulled in considerable troops here - their shells fall on Brcko more and more frequently. If a decision is really brought to try to take the corridor, everything will be razed to the ground. That would probably be a suicidal step for both sides.

A brief respite with the teachers of the local elementary school. - It is peaceful here. They don't bother us, God knows why. People say because this is Croatia and it does not interest them. The corridor is much more important to them. At the beginning of the war there were many refugees, but all of them were taken in by relatives. It is peaceful. If it would only remain that way.

Let it, indeed, remain that way. We return along the road to Osijek. News on the Croatian Radio: "As we learn from the Command of the Croatian Army, Region of Osijek, the Serbian forces broke the truce again, by opening fire..."

It is not difficult to imagine the news on the other side. Despite the signed cease-fire, the media war continues.

GORAN TODOROVIC