The Washington Post, Grbavica, Bosnia-Herzegovina, March 18, 1996
Smoke spiraled from the last Serb-held area of Sarajevo Sunday night.
Gangs of Serb toughs set buildings ablaze, raped old women and ransackedapartments in a final spasm of violence before this stretch of batteredhigh-rises returns to Muslim control on Tuesday.
While NATO soldiers carried out individual acts of heroism, U.N. officialswere vicious in their criticism of the NATO operation as a whole in Grbavica,the last of five Serb-held areas to be transferred to the mostly MuslimBosnian government.
Western officials say the terror unfolding is part of a plan by ultranationalistSerbs to force as many Serbs as possible to leave Sarajevo. The scheme,carried out by Serb gangs tied to Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic,aims at proving that Serbs, Muslims and Croats cannot coexist. That bringsinto question the image of a multiethnic Bosnia envisaged under the Bosnianpeace accord.
Muslim officials also have done little to encourage the Serbs to stay.
While until recently they had dispatched government fire trucks into Grbavicato extinguish blazes, several days ago they stopped, arguing that NATO hadfailed to offer the firefighters adequate protection. The real reason, Westernofficials argued, was that the Sarajevo government was willing to let thefires burn if that meant the Serbs would go.
Of an estimated 70,000 people who were living in the five Serb-held suburbs,about 10 percent are staying, less than half the number the United Nationsinitially had projected.
Problems in implementing the peace agreement prompted the United Statesto call a meeting for today in Geneva of the leaders of Serbia, Croatiaand Bosnia. Secretary of State Warren Christopher will go on from Genevato Moscow to meet with the other members of the international contact groupfor the Balkans - Russia, Germany, France and Britain.
Western officials cite the failure of Muslim police to stop intimidationof Serbs, the near exclusion of Serbs and Croats from Sarajevo's new government,and the continued domination of all three sides by hard-line nationalists.
We're seeing a multiethnic Bosnia being flushed down the toilet here,"said Kris Janowski, the spokesman in Sarajevo for the U.N.
High Commissioner for Refugees. Behind his head, a cyclone-shaped columnof smoke twisted in the wind.
Italian soldiers arrested up to 10 Serb men involved in breaking and enteringand possible arson. Hands raised above their heads, the men were marchedto a nearby Serb police station. But within an hour they were set free.
Although NATO officers had promised to dispatch Italian troops to standguard at a U.N. "safe house," set up for frightened people inthe area, for example, no such protection materialized Sunday.
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