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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Serb Refugees Get Wary Welcome U.N. To Pull Most Peacekeepers Out Of Croatia Within Days

Misha Savic Associated Press

Exhausted and forlorn after a humiliating trek out of Croatia, thousands of Serb refugees straggled into Serbia on Thursday to a wary welcome from their ethnic kin.

Refugees who had endured taunts and attacks from Croats as they fled the country crossed the border on the main highway to Belgrade, only to find police blocking the way to the Yugoslav capital. Those with relatives in Belgrade were allowed to proceed.

City officials apparently were worried about finding food and shelter for the Croatian Serbs and hoped to disperse them throughout Serbia.

Authorities also may have feared trouble. On Wednesday, about 20,000 people demonstrated against Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic in Belgrade, saying he failed to support the Croatian Serb rebels in their losing battle last weekend against the Croatian army.

Many of the refugees feel betrayed by Milosevic, whose nationalist rhetoric stoked the Serb rebellions that started the wars in Croatia and Bosnia.

Milosevic, who is seeking an end to international sanctions against Serbia, met with Russian President Boris Yeltsin in Moscow on Thursday and said it “makes no sense” to rely on force to settle the conflicts in Bosnia and Croatia.

Croatia’s blitz offensive, which ended Monday, set in motion the largest single exodus of refugees in four years of war in the former Yugoslavia. As many as 200,000 people are on the move in Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia.

An estimated 50,000 Serb refugees were in northern Serb-held Bosnia, mostly in the Banja Luka area.

The U.N. Security Council passed a resolution Thursday demanding that Croatia allow Serbs to “remain, leave or return in safety.”

The resolution, unanimously approved by the 15 members, condemned Croatia for shelling civilian targets and committing acts that led to the deaths of three U.N. peacekeepers.

It also demanded that Croatia give human rights groups access to the refugee population and “create conditions conducive to the return of those persons who have left their homes.”

Madeleine Albright, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said the United States expected the U.N. war crimes tribunal in the Hague “to investigate allegations of abuse (by Croatians) against unarmed civilians.”

Croatia’s U.N. ambassador, Mario Nobilo, said his country “deeply regrets the loss of innocent lives and the loss of three peacekeepers.”

‘My government has made numerous appeals to the ethnic Serb citizens of Croatia to stay and offered them amnesty, resources and protection to do so,” Nobilo said.

Its mandate in shambles after Croatia’s triumph over rebel Serbs, the United Nations said Thursday it would pull out most of its 12,400 peacekeepers in Croatia, beginning within days.

Meanwhile, Serbs still holding a stretch of land in eastern Croatia, along the border with Yugoslavia, prepared for what they expect will be an imminent final clash with Croatian troops.

If Croatia attacks there, it is widely believed the war could spread throughout the Balkans as Serbia is likely to intervene on the side of the rebels with its powerful army.

Fearing the worst, the United States sought European support Thursday for a renewed diplomatic push to end the fighting.

National Security Adviser Anthony Lake met with British officials in London, then with German officials in Bonn, reportedly to discuss a new peace plan. His next stop is France.

U.S. and German officials said they would not comment on the talks until Friday.

As many as 5,000 Croatian Serb refugees crossed into Serbia along a route from Topusko, south of the Croatian capital of Zagreb. The Serbs had endured taunts and attacks from Croats who lined the route, and many were injured.

Serbian authorities set up a makeshift processing center near Dovanovci, a border town 20 miles west of Belgrade. Police, sweating through their fatigues in the hot Balkan sun, banged on manual typewriters to register the refugees and the weapons they were ordered to turn over.

Red Cross workers handed out food, drinks and diapers.

Many refugees carried rocks or chunks of concrete that Croats along the road had thrown at their cars, smashing windows and bloodying many.

One refugee, 31-year-old Nada Bobic, called the pieces of rubble a symbol of their suffering - and a reminder that it would be avenged. “Lost things should be returned to their owners,” she said. “I am going to send this back one day.”

Authorities directed refugees to hastily erected centers in southern and western Serbia. Those with relatives and friends in Serbia were urged to seek them out.

Many in the first wave of Serbs reaching Dobanovci were men whose wives and children had either left Croatia earlier or stayed behind. Others were soldiers, who were later seen getting into Yugoslav army trucks, presumably to be sent back to the front lines.