(3 Aug 1997) Eng/Serbo-Croat/Nat
Nearly 500 Muslims have been driven from a Croat-controlled town that they returned to just three weeks ago.
The town of Jajce was bitterly contested during the war and Muslim residents had only just returned to reclaim their properties.
But a mob of drunken Croats drove them out when they went on the rampage, burning homes and stoning UN vehicles at the scene.
Most of the 500 or so Bosnian Muslims who'd ventured back to their homes in Croat-controlled Jajce and the nearby village of Bistrica turned and fled back to Muslim territory on Saturday night.
According to a UN spokesperson they were driven out by rampaging Croat civilians who went on a spree, burning homes and setting up roadblocks.
The mob also stoned UN vehicles.
On Sunday, a few remaining groups of Muslims in Bistrica stood around - some clearly looked ready to leave, others looked unsure where to go or what to do next.
A local S-FOR soldier said the international force was working with the local police.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"Last night, a large number of the people who had returned to their homes decided to move out. They felt threatened and so they left and have gone back down to Zenica. At present there are still people in Bistrica and Vucici and there is a large S-FOR presence there and we're attempting to co-operate with local police to resolve the situation.
SUPER CAPTION: Captain Marcus Ravy, S-FOR
But another spokesperson said that local police were "passive" - despite a pledge from Jajce's Croat police chief on Friday that he would do what he could to calm down the groups of civilians harassing Muslims.
One of the Muslims who had been forced to leave his home, described a scene that was depressingly similar to the tales of so-called ethnic cleansing that emerged again and again throughout the three and a half year war.
SOUNDBITE: (Serbo-Croat)
"When we were sitting in our house, a man who was carrying a mask came inside and told us to pack up our stuff and to move out in half an hour."
SUPER CAPTION: Mecenica Naim, Bosnian Muslim refugee
Troops from the NATO-led peace force removed one roadblock, but the main road from Jajce toward Sarajevo was blocked again by Sunday morning.
Jajce's authorities are among the few in Bosnia who had agreed to accept minority refugees -- which qualifies any community for extra international aid.
But hatred, bitterness and fear run deep among Bosnia's Serbs, Muslims and Croats, and it is hard to make any such move without provoking violence.
An S-FOR spokesperson in Sarajevo said that S-FOR was not prepared to stand idly by if there was violence but that it was leaving it to the local authorities to deal with the situation.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"However, we're not going to stand by and allow acts of violence to dictate how this particular problem comes out. If there is a threat to life and limb S-FOR has the capability to step in and protect lives. But -- as I say again -- it is clearly the responsibility of the local authorities to bring this problem to a peaceful solution."
SUPER CAPTION: Major Chris Riley, S-FOR spokesman in Sarajevo
The Dayton peace agreement foresees all refugees returning to their pre-war homes.
But so far only about 1-thousand non-Serbs have returned to the Serb-held half of Bosnia.
And in the Muslim-Croat Federation, returns of Muslims to Croat areas and Croats to Muslim areas are similarly rare.
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