MODRICA AND THE RETURN OF REFUGEES

NO RETURN UNTIL THE AUTHORITIES SAY SO

AIM SARAJEVO, 2 January, 1997

"People want to return to their homes, but the local authorities are not in favour", claims Milenko Popovic, President of the Red Cross of Modrica. Thus Modrica, a town on the north of Bosnia, joins the sorry list of devastated Bosnian-Herzegovinian places in which party power holders do not allow the domicile population to return.

We arrived to Modrica together with representatives of the Coalition for the Return composed of associations of refugees and exiles from the territory of former Yugoslavia, which is working under the auspices and with the support of the Office of High Representative Carl Bildt. Our first impression of the demolished and burned down houses we saw from a van with diplomatic registration plates, was that time has stopped in Modrica. Since 1992 when the armed forces of the Bosnian Serbs for the second time "liberated" Modrica from its up-to-then inhabitants - Bosniacs and Croats - the city probably did not change much. Signs of battles conducted almost four years ago are still visible at every step. Ruins and again ruins, with a sporadic patched up building or house are the gray picture of Modrica today.

Our first stop is the building of the Communal Red Cross in Modrica where we tried to learn about the present situation in Modrica from Milenko Popovic, president of this organization, as well as Djordje Djokic. Our collocutors are known in this town as independent intellectuals so that we shall not doubt their words. According to Popovic out of the total 30 thousand inhabitants of the Modrica commune today over 15 thousand are Serbian refugees, which means that over one half of the present-day Modrica denizens came to this town from other places, most probably those which are now under the control of the B&H Army. Popovic adds that unless Serbian refugees return to their homes in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, there is no chance for the exiled Bosniacs and Croats to return to Modrica. As President of the Red Cross he supports the Coalition for the Return and its objectives, but he is not optimistic when it comes to concrete results: "Not a single specific action for the return of the exiled, no matter how much they wanted it, is possible because the local potentates do not allow that", claims Popovic.

"And all that is aimed at will be impossible to achieve without consultations with and the approval of those same local authorities", adds Djordje Djokic. According to him, no matter what, there will be no return without the approval of the authorities in power.

After a rather off-handed and laconic conversation, Milenko Popovic accompanied us to the refugee camp in Donja Kladova, where the exiled Drvar denizens are accommodated.

"No films or pictures", were the first word of the refugee camp manager, who did not even consider it appropriate to tell us her name. The misery and sufferings of the exiled Drvar denizens are the same as of all exiles, no matter which of the three nationalities of B&H they are. Over 300 people, women and children are accommodated in the building of the former elementary school with minimum living conditions, if their day-to-day survival could at all be called life.

At the call of the manager the people gathered in one of the classrooms with a symbolic title "living room", where father Franjo Radman, member of the Coalition for the Return addressed them. After talking about Drvar and the desire of Croats now living there to return to their homes in Kakanj and Vares, he invited the exiled Drvar citizens to support the objectives of the Coalition and the idea of return. This was followed by an applause of refugees and choral declaration of the wish to return.

"We want home, we want to go back to our places, you can see for yourself how we suffer", said Milan Knezevic adding that 50 percent of people would return to Drvar that same moment, irrespective of the authorities in power. Naturally, not everyone was of Milan Knezevic's opinion regarding the authorities in Drvar, but were unanimous concerning the return. A minor misunderstanding we had best illustrated this. Namely, while the AIM journalist was taking notes of the meeting, the refugees thought that he was probably someone in charge of making lists for the return to Drvar. We were soon surrounded by refugees who were showering us with names from all corners: Djuro Gvozdenovic! Jovan Sesuk! Gojko, Pero, Vasilije...

We left the refugee camp in Donja Kladova convinced of the desire of the people of Drvar to return to their homes, but also of their courage to publicly state their opinion. Maybe this openly stated wish to return is one of the reasons why they are still in the Collective Center. We intended to ask that Novak Gojkovic, head of the Modrica commune, but after a "warm" welcome with which we were shown into the communal building, we gave up that idea. Namely, as we were entering the building (which is among rare ones that have just been reconstructed), only a few members of the Coalition were admitted with an explanation that the Major's office was allegedly too small to receive us all. Whether incidentally or not, but Mile Marceta, a Coalition member and president of the Association of Drvar Refugees, who openly advocates the return home, was also left standing in front of the communal building...

In addition to the Major and his associates, we were welcomed by a huge portrait of Radovan Karadzic, accused war criminal. We are convinced that the Major would have soon concluded the meeting had it not been also attended by representatives of the Office of High Representative, OSCE and UNHCR. Consequently, in diplomatic words Novak Gojkovic tried to explain that no one would return to Modrica until Serbian refugees return from Modrica to their homes which, as Gojkovic claimed, they did not want. We do not know whether the Major has ever visited or heard the wishes of Drvar refugees, but he claimed that only two to three percent of refugees want to return to the territory of the B&H Federation. According to him, governments of the two entities will have to deal with the major problem of the return of refugees and decide accordingly.

"You are well aware of the fact that I have fought for the return of these people to their homes and I think that it was the party task of the Major Gojkovic to make it possible for me to attend that meeting", commented Mile Marceta his absence from the meeting held in the commune, after it was concluded. According to him, Gojkovic's claim that only 2-4 percent of refugees want to return to their homes, is untrue. Quite contrary: "Three to four percent of people do not want to return as they are from the ranks of the ruling SDS and in addition to other peoples' flats have been given all the privileges", says Marceta adding that great pressure was exerted on the "disobedient" refugees who want to go back to the Federation.

"They blackmail us with humanitarian aid, food, clothes and footwear. They blackmail us with flats which a Norwegian humanitarian organization has reconstructed for the accommodation of people from collective centers. Those obedient have got the flats, while the disobedient are still In Donja Kladova", says Marceta.

In fear of losing what little they get from the local authorities, the majority of refugees dare not publicly demand to be allowed to return home, but it remains to be seen for how long. Namely, the economy in Modrica is dead, there is no work, no future, people are dissatisfied, which we had the opportunity to see for ourselves.

Needless to say, no agreements or concrete results concerning the return of refugees have been reached in Modrica. However, the fact that this was finally included in the agenda represents a major step forward. The official stand of those in charge of decision-making is still inflexible, but it as open question for how long will the ruling oligarchy be able to control the will and desire of refugees to return (or not return) to their homes with pressures and coercion.

Mirsad FAZLIC