Incidents in Drvar

Strategy of Incidents

AIM Banja Luka, 17 July, 1999

A criminal act was used once again for political manipulation with refugees. In Drvar, on 2 July, a Croat woman was physically abused, and the police suspected and arrested a man of Serb ethnic origin. Protests in the streets of the town followed, conveying only one message - stop the return of the Serbs! Five persons of Serb nationality were injured. Representatives of international organizations in Drvar estimated that these were protests of politically motivated groups whose only obective was to create a hostile atmosphere to the Serb population.

"A criminal act must not be an immediate cause for obstructing return of refugees, but just a reason for professional investigation and punishment of the perpetrator", said representatives of international organizations which are implementing the peace agreement in Bosnia & Herzegovina. But, there are no indications that they will go any further than verbal condemnation.

High Representative for Bosnia & Herzegovina, Carlos Westendorp says that he is aware of everything that is going on in Drvar, but his words as well as those of his employees show that they can do nothing about it. He concludes that whenever a large number of the Serbs return, as in the case of Drvar, it raises tensions. According to the data from the end of last month, 5017 Serbs returned. "We want to prevent suffering because of a single incident of the Serbs who have legally come back. My envoy in Drvar nearly interrupted the return because he wished to pacify the situation", Westendorp says.

He is Peter Chapell, representative of OHR for Drvar, who according to the report of HABENA, the official news agency of Bosnian Croats, during the protest in Drvar declared that further return of the Serbs had to be prevented and that without the Croats this town had no future. His colleague James Ferguson who is in Banja Luka, asked whether it was possible that those who should offer support to refugees could say something like that, said: "It is possible that Chappell said that, but you must understand that he was facing a mob of several hundred demonstrators". Ferguson tried to make excuses for OHR by saying that a written report had arrived from Drvar in which these words cannot be found, but there was only a true assessment of the situation.

International police declared that patrolling would be intensified in the region of Drvar, that close cooperation would be maintained with local police, but that the number of personnel in this town would not be increased.

"The foreigners are scared", said in Banja Luka Milorad Maksic, one of the injured persons in the incidents in Drvar. "They are like small children. Impotent. Five women come and scare away the transporter and vehicles", he says. Maksic also assesses that politics was to blame for everything, both the Croat in Drvar, but also nationalist policy in Republika Srpska. " I returned to Drvar a year ago. I have never had problems with the Croat population. A wonderful people. Go ahead, write that down", he says and adds: "The authorities and the police are to blame, not the Croat people, because they are just as poor as I am".

Another injured person who decided to tell his story in public is Mladen Mihajlovic. Mihajlovic is not a returnee, but he did go to the cultural and artistic performance organised by his folklore society. He also planned to visit his father who lives in a village near Drvar. At the outskirts of the town, he says, he and another two people were intercepted by a group of young people and beaten up. Although he had injuries of the head and nose, Mihajlovic managed to run away. "I ran towards the centre. I saw a vehicle of the United Nations and tried to stop it. Although I was covered with blood, they passed by me", says Mihajlovic, who was then taken care of in Drvar hospital.

Despite everything, the official decision to interrupt return has not been reached after all. Serb population in Drvar is living in fear, because local police cannot offer them protection. IPTF sharply criticised absence of action when public law and order were disturbed in this town. But, as they say, response of the local policemen was that in order to act they needed permission from the top.

Maksic and Mihajlovic do not expect any approval from the top, because, they say, everything was in fact stirred up from the top. Just a day before the incidents, president of the Federation of Bosnia & Herzegovina Ivo Andric Luzanski and mayor of Drvar Mile Marceta talked about the situation in the town and ended the talks with optimism. "It is time to relieve tensions", said Marceta at the time, not dreaming what would happen next. When asked whether mayor Marceta played a role in ensuring safety of returnees, Mihajlovic and Maksic shrugged their shoulders and said that he too could do nothing, especially because he was still forced to be in Banja Luka.

And Banja Luka, like the rest of Republika Srpska forgot about Drvar. Political parties this time did not comment on the violence in this town. Institutions of this entity could do nothing about it because it was on the territory of the other one. A journalist of a local television station asked Zivko Radisic, member of Presidency, for a comment, since rights of the citizens of Drvar could become his responsibility, but he refused to give any answer.

Citizens of Drvar do not say what should be done, but they are certain that the minimum would be for those who have shown fear to show more respluteness next time.

Aleksandar Zivanovic

(AIM)