BOSNIA: MUSLIM GROUP ATTEMPT TO PREVENT CROATS VISITING THEIR HOMES

(29 Aug 1997) Serbo-Croat/Nat

A group of around 70 Muslims blocked a road near Travnik in central Bosnia on Friday in an attempt to prevent a group of Croats visiting their homes in the village of Velika Bukovica.

After hearing reports about road blocks, the U-N police force arrived at the scene and positioned itself between the two crowds of people.

The road block came on the same day the United Nations announced an agreement between Muslims and Croats, which would permit thousands of refugees to return to their pre-war houses.

The crowd of angry Muslim civilians blocked this road 10 kilometres west of Travnik in central Bosnia.

Many carried wooden sticks and various banners protesting against the return of Croats to their homes.

The United Nations International Police Task Force soon arrived on the scene and stood between the two crowds.

The Muslims said that the main reason for their protest was that during the war, on June 4th 1993, Croats killed 7 Muslim men and one woman in Velika Bukovica.

98 other Muslim civilians were then taken to Croat prison in Busovaca,
central Bosnia, and held there for 18 days. Two of them never came
back.

SOUNDBITE: (Serbo-Croat)
"My only son was slaughtered. My two sons-in-law were killed. Five of my grandchildren are orphans now and they (the Croats) dare to come here."
SUPER CAPTION: Fatima Suljic, Muslim woman

The Croats seemed tired and bewildered.

SOUNDBITE: (Serbo-Croat)
"There is no patience anymore.They (Croats) cannot even see their destroyed houses or put candles onto graveyards. I do not understand this. Nobody wants to leave their house behind. And sooner or later everybody will go back to their homes. Not only Croats but Muslims as well."
SUPER CAPTION: Croatian mayor of Travnik

According to the Dayton peace accords, which brought and end to the war in November 1995, freedom of movement for all ethnic groups should have been established in the whole of Bosnia.

But there are few places in the country where that has actually been implemented.

Around 800-thousand Bosnian refugees remain displaced within the country.

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