RIGHTS-SERBIA: Ten Years on Refugees Still Hope to Return Home

By Vesna Peric Zimonjic Reprint | | Print |

Vesna Peric Zimonjic

BELGRADE, Sep 13 2001 (IPS) - Ten years ago, thousands of Croatian refugees crossed into Serbia, escaping the devastating conflict which split up the former Yugoslavia.

The refugees thought they would stay for a while and return home once the fighting ended. Ten years on, Serbia still hosts more than 250,000 Serb refugees from Croatia.

Things are changing, however. “For the first time in ten years, Serbia now has a programme to re-integrate those who want to stay,” says Sanda Raskovic Ivic, the new Serbian Commissioner for Refugees.

The political scene in the Balkans has changed dramatically from what it was ten years ago. The two dictators, who were “responsible” for the conflicts in the balkans, are no longer active. Croatian President Franjo Tudjman died in 1999, while Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic fell from power last year. He was extradited to the U.N. War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague, The Netherlands, in June.

In the 1990s, Serbia, with a population of seven million people, hosted more than 465,000 Serbs who fled Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo.

Refugees were hardly granted residence, or citizenship. Without papers, they could not obtain jobs or private property to move into. Many remain homeless; living in rented apartments, or scattered in some 400 collective centres around Serbia. Others still stay with relatives. In the past decade, aid came only from international organisations.

“Milosevic’s Serbia was not a mother to us. It was a stepmother,” says Smiljan Zivkovic from Sisak, Croatia.

During Milosevic’s regime, thousands of young people ended up as smugglers in order to support their families. Thousands moved to a third country, hoping for better future.

“It was the cruel survival game we had to play,” admits Zoran Glumac (35), from the Croatian town of Vukovar.

The largest wave of Serbs from Croatia arrived in 1995. The mass exodus of 190,000 refugees was caused by the Croatian army offensives code-named ‘Lightening’ and ‘Storm’. The offensives crushed the self-proclaimed Republic of Serb Krajina in Croatia, backed by Milosevic.

Milosevic’s regime sent thousands of Serbs to the southern province of Kosovo, in an effort to beef up the Serb population there. Kosovo was the home of some 1.8 million ethnic Albanians and 200,000 Serbs.

In 1999, when the eleven weeks of NATO air raids ended and the U.N. administration took over, Croatian Serbs became refugees again. Along with more than 150,000 Kosovo Serbs, they crossed into Serbia to seek shelter and protection.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) air raids were undertaken to punish Milosevic for his repressive politics against ethnic Albanians. Serbs say they fled Albania fearing revenge.

To many, however, refugee life amounts to death. “I died twice,” Mileva Ivanovic, a middle aged housewife told IPS. “I first died in 1995 when I lost everything in Otisic (Croatia). The second time I died was after we fled Suva Reka (Kosovo) in June 1999.”

According to Raskovic Ivic, herself a refugee from Croatia who came to Belgrade in 1991, the country needs 2.5 billion U.S. Dollars in the next ten years to solve housing and employment problems for refugees who want to stay.

“We have already obtained the money for the first year, from the donors’ conference,” she says. “The sum will help us build 1,800 new apartments and obtain 2,000 small farms for refugees from Croatia,” the Commissioner says.

“After 10 years of negligence, this country is now serious about tackling refugee problems,” Petar Ladjevic, an advisor to Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica on refugee affairs, told IPS.

“The on-going normalisation of relations with Croatia is of great importance. Those who want to return home will be helped in all ways. Those who want to stay would be involved in the re- integration programmes,” he says.

Despite international efforts and support from the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), only 13,000 Serbs have returned to Croatia. Some 25,000 requests are being processed at the UNHCR offices in Belgrade and Zagreb (Croatia).

According to international organisations, more than 30,000 Serb homes were burned down in Krajina in 1995. Serb refugees say it is mainly fear that prevents them from going back to Croatia, as the inter-ethnic hatred and wounds of war remain deep on both sides.

A recent poll by Zagreb newspaper ‘Vecernji List’ showed that some 89 percent out of 1,500 people surveyed had negative opinion about Serbs.

“We need a fresh start in our relations,” said Andjelko Runjic, the new Croatian ambassador to Belgrade.

In an interview with Croatian media, Runjic said “the fresh start means tolerance between our two nations (Serbia and Croatia), a civilised effort to overcome the gruesome shadows of the past”.