CROATIA: REBEL SERB FORCES SURRENDER IN PAKRAC

(5 May 1995) Natural Sound

Rebel Serb forces in Pakrac, a town in Croatia, have surrendered today (Thursday) after a day of fierce fighting.

It was believed to be the biggest Serb surrender since Serbs and Croats launched a bitter 1991 war that killed more than 10,000 people and left the Serbs in control of one-third of Croatia.

A U-N tank rolled into Pakrac Thursday - to witness the last moments of the fight for the town. Serb soldiers in the town had just surrendered to the Croat army.

Pakrac has been the centre of intense fighting as rebel Serbs fought to keep control of the town, only 90 kilometres from the Croatian capital, Zagreb.

Croatian soldiers searched the town inch by inch to flush out the last rebels.

The surrendering Serbs, which included top military and civilian officials, were rounded up with their hands above their heads.

The Serb officer who announced the Serbs were giving themselves up said a further 5-thousand Serbs were ready to surrender - making this apparently the biggest Serb surrender since Serbs and Croats declared war in 1991.

Croatian soldiers picked out and arrested those Serbs that were already known to them.

Women and children were told they could go back to their homes.

Their menfolk were marched away to be held in detention for interrogation.

In Zagreb, the Croatian capital, an air raid warning this morning sent residents scurrying into air raid shelters around the capital.

After two days of rocket attacks, the city's residents were quick to clear the streets.

In the shelters, people tuned in to radios to try and find out what was going on outside - and in the Serb-held enclave in the west of the country.

It was also a day of funerals. Stjepan Krhen was one of the five people killed in the first day of rocket attacks.

His wife mourned his death, bitter the war that had left the city unscathed for four years had suddenly touched her life so dramatically.

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