Mediators to Punish Croats in Bosnian Town
May 3, 1998 - 0:0
DRVAR, Bosnia Western officials threatened on Friday to punish Croat authorities in the northwest Bosnian town of Drvar for their failure to stop the harassment of Bosnian Serb refugees returning home there. They said they were considering serious measures after a Croat crowd set on fire a UN police station and apartment buildings last week, forcing hundreds of Serbs to flee the town.
The main responsibility lies on the authorities, and you know that if the authorities do not comply they will be sanctioned, Carlos Westendorp, the international high representative to Bosnia, said. Westendorp visited Drvar on Friday accompanied by the chief of NATO forces in Europe, General Wesley Clarke. The two met with the Serb mayor of Drvar, Milan Marceta, before discussing the situation in the town, which lies some 140 kilometers (80 miles) northwest of the capital Sarajevo. The investigation is ongoing...early next week I'll be here again with these measures and I will announce them then, Westendorp said.
A Western source close to the mediators said one of the measures might include appointment of an international administrator who would oversee the work of the local administration in Drvar. Westendorp, using his powers as the ultimate mediator in Bosnia, has already sacked the Croat deputy mayor of Drvar, Drago Tokmadzija. The United Nations mission in Bosnia which oversees police restructuring in the country's Muslim-Croat Federation and the Serb Republic has requested the removal of the cantonal interior minister and the police chief in Drvar. The UN has also demanded that 15 Serb policemen be included on the Drvar police force, in addition to some 40 Croat police.
Serbs, who made up an overwhelming majority in Drvar before the 3-1/2 year war in Bosnia, won last September's elections with the help of absentee ballots. But the Croat community of about 6,000 people in the town has been extremely hostile to Serb returnees, denying them electric power and water. Last month an elderly Serb couple was killed and their house set on fire.
Officials said some 50 houses belonging to the Serb returnees had been set on fire in recent weeks. I think the International Community is aware that the Dayton (peace agreement) is hanging in the air and that if something is not changed today, the thing we all believed in will be destroyed, Marceta said.
The main responsibility lies on the authorities, and you know that if the authorities do not comply they will be sanctioned, Carlos Westendorp, the international high representative to Bosnia, said. Westendorp visited Drvar on Friday accompanied by the chief of NATO forces in Europe, General Wesley Clarke. The two met with the Serb mayor of Drvar, Milan Marceta, before discussing the situation in the town, which lies some 140 kilometers (80 miles) northwest of the capital Sarajevo. The investigation is ongoing...early next week I'll be here again with these measures and I will announce them then, Westendorp said.
A Western source close to the mediators said one of the measures might include appointment of an international administrator who would oversee the work of the local administration in Drvar. Westendorp, using his powers as the ultimate mediator in Bosnia, has already sacked the Croat deputy mayor of Drvar, Drago Tokmadzija. The United Nations mission in Bosnia which oversees police restructuring in the country's Muslim-Croat Federation and the Serb Republic has requested the removal of the cantonal interior minister and the police chief in Drvar. The UN has also demanded that 15 Serb policemen be included on the Drvar police force, in addition to some 40 Croat police.
Serbs, who made up an overwhelming majority in Drvar before the 3-1/2 year war in Bosnia, won last September's elections with the help of absentee ballots. But the Croat community of about 6,000 people in the town has been extremely hostile to Serb returnees, denying them electric power and water. Last month an elderly Serb couple was killed and their house set on fire.
Officials said some 50 houses belonging to the Serb returnees had been set on fire in recent weeks. I think the International Community is aware that the Dayton (peace agreement) is hanging in the air and that if something is not changed today, the thing we all believed in will be destroyed, Marceta said.