'The Day Of Liberation' Arrives For Weary City
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina, AP, March 20, 1996 -- Ljubica Tomic spentfour years hiding in her apartment, waiting for the day her son would walkthrough the door. He did exactly that Tuesday, coming home in the firstwave of returnees that crossed into formerly Serb-held Grbavica after Sarajevowas reunified.
"Thank God the day of liberation came," said Tomic, a Croat, asshe and a neighbor walked through city streets and past a former hangoutof Serb extremists for the first time since the Bosnian war began. It wasa day of reunions, of tearful hugs and heartfelt kisses. But the transferof the last of five Serb areas to the Muslim-Croat federation was also agrim reminder of how much Sarajevo has changed since the war started inApril 1992.
The new Sarajevo, carved at the Dayton peace talks, has lost much of itsethnic diversity. It has fewer than 300,000 residents, down to nearly halfof its prewar size, and some boundaries remain in dispute. Peace was supposedto bring free movement, but three Muslims trying to cross into a Serb-dominatedarea in the Dobrinja suburb were arrested by Bosnian Serb police Tuesday.
According to federation police, the Bosnian Serbs try to spark incidentsin Dobrinja daily. While Serbs, Croats and Muslims still live in Sarajevo,the city is much more Muslim today. Of the 60,000 Serbs who lived in thefive areas handed over, only about 11,000 remain, according to the U.N.High Commissioner for Refugees. "Sarajevo became one city again today,which is good news," said U.N. spokesman Kris Janowski. But he calledthe Serb exodus "a big setback for the international community's effortto rebuild Bosnia as a multiethnic country." Grbavica, which is adjacentto the city center, saw some of the heaviest fighting. Serb gunners terrorizedcivilians in the government-held part of town from the high-rise apartmentbuildings and hills. After days of looting, arson and rape blamed on Serbthugs, 100 federation police moved into Grbavica at 6:15 a.m. and securedcontrol of the suburb. But the transfer did not occur without a last-minuteaccusation.
Bosnia's acting president said Serb secret police were driving their ownpeople out of Sarajevo's suburbs in a twisted version of "ethnic cleansing.""They didn't want to go," Ejup Ganic, who is also vice presidentof the Muslim-Croat federation, said in Vienna, Austria. "Serbian secretpolice visited all those who were thinking about staying and told them theywould have to go.
They kidnapped kids too, so people would have to go." In front of anapartment building, an older Croat woman hugged and kissed the Serb andMuslim neighbors she hadn't seen since the war.
"Oh God, oh God," Dara Bobovac kept repeating, as she embracedHamza Husic, 45, a Muslim, and Nada Staric, 50, a Serb. Two other friendsand neighbors, Ajsa Kulovac, 70, and Sevala Cajic, 48, clung to each otherand cried.
"I don't know what to feel," Kulovac said. "I still cannotbelieve that it is all over."
AmericanCivil Rights Review -- A Fabulous Link!