THE INVISIBLE PEOPLE

In a Refugee Centre in Sremska Mitrovica

AIM, Belgrade, May 12, 1995

Slowly, but surely, the enthusiasm related to the dream about absolutely all the Serbs living comfortably in an absolutely single state is beginning to wane. The sanctions have an excellent effect on checking the appetite of the voracious authorities. They are returning a sense of reality to them. All things considered, some Serbs will have to wait for some time...

Until then, even brotherly solidarity failed them. For a long time now, Serbia has not welcomed anyone with her arms wide open. Least of all the refugees. But, it is all the same. Several thousand of them are already at its door. Of course, they are the refugees from Western Slavonia. About thirty of them have already come to Sremska Mitrovica. For the time being they are accomodated in a motel in the suburb. Some of them were received by the citizens, and some are staying with relatives and friends. A sports hall has been prepared for the possibility of a mass arrival.

• It is very difficult for us. As if we are a little embarassed about being refugees. Everyone is looking askance at us - Gordana Stankovic from Rajic says. I had porblems at the border because I did not have my identity card. Everything has happened so suddenly that I have forgotten my papers. I happened to take my health insurance card.

She is tiny and worn out. This thirty-year old blonde looks like a girl. She is a mother of two small children.

• When it became clear that it is no joke - she recalls - my husband put us in a car with four friends of ours
• mothers of two children, each to flee as fast as we can. They shelled us all the way through Prasnik. We protected our children with our bodies. Later we joined a convoy and crossed the river Sava. On the bridge, one had literally to trample upon corpses. Nevertheless we were lucky, we passed.

Gordana Stankovic tells us that, as concerning her village, at least one man was killed in every house and many were taken porisoners.

A Burden for the Conscience

We are welcoming the refugees in a reception centre in Sremska Mitrovica. They say that this is the first night in a row of ten they have slept like human beings. They are still in a state of shock. They do not understand what happened to them, nor how it happened. They were unprepared. They talk about treason, a political "deal", full of distrust. They have become uncommunicative. Suffering is obvious. At the beginning noone wishes to speak for the press. Among other, they say, because they feel that nobody cares. If they did, they would not have experienced all this. They are aware that with their presence they can just be a burden for the conscience of those who have lead to this situation. That they will want to keep away from them. That is why they give the impression of "invisible people".

After persistent persuasion, while waiting their turn to finish paperwork, they agree to talk.

Gojko Dobricic is 55, he is from Okucani where he worked as a guard at a petrol station.

• They hit at the most vilnerable point, from the direction of Rajicic. There they burned down houses and butchered the people. I was almost the last to leave Okucani, in case someone needed fuel. In the end, my wife, son and I fled in a tractor. We passed through that Novi Varos. We drove five kilometres along corpses. They shot at us too. Not a bullet grazed us, although the tractor trailer is completely bullet-ridden. The wounded screamed, but we could not help them. You just keep running away so as not to be killed - Gojko says. - We will never go back. We were betrayed by politicians. I don't blame anyone, but I cannot forgive commander Laza Babic who fled. They should have informed the people, so that small fry could pull out. Like this, a friend from Pakrac tells me that more than 500 people were slaughtered over there.

The forty-year-old Draga Linjakovic from Vrbogan near Okucani shares his opinion.

• Dreadful. We have never believed that we could experience anything of the sort. It all happened unexpectedly. The command left, and the people remained. If they had only informed the people in time to leave, like the Croats informed the UNPROFOR. As it is, we were left without anything in the whole world. I started without my shoes. First we went to Bosnia, to Nova Topola, where there were about six thousand refugees. The conditions were terribly bad. What's even worse is that the Serb authorities there immediately mobilized our men and sent them to the first frontlines. If they refused, they were arrested. Now we are here. And when you come here, to Serbia, noone even looks at you... What it was all like, I don't believe we shall ever go back.

March on Belgrade ?

Several young men came to register at the Centre which irrestibly reminds of a bunker. A fighter with no name tells us his war experience.

• We were left betrayed in Paklenica, surrounded. There was about a hundred of us soldiers with rifles. Had all the civilians been evacuated on time, we would have reached Okucani that very same day, where we would have joined the army. But, the civilians were with us. About fifty women and children. We were carrying two wounded men with us, too. We dragged them for three days through the forest, with no food and water. We did not even know where we were, nor what we were. Then we decided to split into groups and separate. On the fourth day, the civilians decided to surrender. We reached the Sava only on the fifth or the sixth day. There was no choice but to swim. I swam over... Probably none of us will ever return. That is what the power-wielders decided. We were betrayed. They have not fired a single shot from that side. I don't know why - our anonymous interlocutor says.

Many admit they are angry for being directed to Kosovo. One of them asks: are there still any Croats in Zemun. Having got an affirmative answer, with a smile, he adds that their problem is in that case resolved. They will get into their houses and apartments. "Seselj will give us their addresses. Eye for eye, tooth for tooth."

They say, with conviction, that majority of the refugees who are still in Bosnia, have a serious intention to march into Belgrade. Straight to the Assembly. They think they deserve a right to answers. Just like Aran Dragicevic who was until recently the mayor of Okucani and who is at the moment in exile in Bosnia, who stated a while ago: "We are fed up being border guards for the other Serbs. We wish to be transferred to a more peaceful place all together and forget about everything."

Since Bosnia can in no way fit in the picture of a "more peaceful place", Mr Dragicevic demanded a permit from the authorities of the FRY for the entrance of his fellow-citizens into Serbia. If they will not be enabled to do so, he threatened that the refugees would start towards Belgrade on their own. He believes that the long-suffering people have a right to choose where and how they will live. As we learn in the Centre, the regime has decided to keep the new refugees as invisible as possible. They will be sent to Southern Serbia and Kosovo. According to it, Serbia proper is overburdened. So far, according to unofficial data, only about a hundred refugees from Western Slavonia have enetered Serbia so far. These were individual arrivals. Organized arrivals are expected towards the end of this or the beginnng of next week.

Beograd je, u medjuvremenu, nezvaniccno proglassen zabranjenom zonom. Najavljeni marss, procci cce, svakako, pored njega. Pogled na kolone, kreatorima politike iz Skupsstine, ne bi bio ugodan.

In the meantime, Belgrade was unofficially proclaimed a prohibited zone. The announced march will certainly skirt it. Columns of people would not be a pleasant sight for the creators of policy from the Assembly.

Marijana Milosavljevic