December/January 1992/93, Page 69

Human Rights

By Andrea W. Lorenz

U.N. Human Rights Observer: Bosnian Muslims "Threatened With Extermination"

In late August and mid-October, a team headed by Special Rapporteur Tadeusz Mazowiecki of the United Nations' Commission on Human Rights made two visits to the former Yugoslavia. Mr. Mazowiecki's often mildly worded report belies the urgency of his message. He concludes that the Muslim population are the principal victims of the atrocities and "are virtually threatened with extermination."

An estimated 70,000 Muslims are reported to have fled from the region bordering Bosnia-Herzegovina. Not only are they facing extinction, but every vestige of their contribution to the region's culture is being systematically obliterated. Mosques have been bombed and pillaged and Islamic cultural centers razed.

The report provides the following example of the "system." Fleeing Muslims are forced to sign documents stating they will never return to their homes. No compensation is offered for their property or their personal belongings. Muslims who had fled to Travnik from Banja Luka told Mr. Mazowiecki's team that an "emigration agency" had been established to organize their displacement. Many of them had had to pay up to 300 Deutschemarks ($190) per person to be allowed to leave. They were driven toward the front line. Despite the fact that they had paid for transport to the border, en route they were beaten, robbed, and in some cases raped or shot. Then, several kilometers before they reached the border, they were told to get off the bus and to cross the combat zone as best they could. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) refuses to help the families cross the battle zones because they do not want to be seen to be aiding the policy of "ethnic cleansing."

During their second mission, the team visited different areas of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, and Serbia, including Kosovo, Vojvodina, and Sandjak. They paid special attention to the conditions in prisons and refugee centers. Mr. Mazowiecki stresses in his report that the "violations are being perpetuated at the very time the parties are entering into commitments at the negotiating table at Geneva. "

Their treatment by Serbian authorities in the region of Banja Luka is a case in point. A few days before Mr. Mazowiecki and his team arrived in the region, in the village of Celinac 17 houses occupied by Muslim families were blown up in a single night. Because it was impossible to flee the region, approximately 650 Muslims took refuge in a school. When Mr. Mazowiecki and his team arrived, they learned that the ICRC had not yet been allowed to visit the school. ICRC officials told them they feared that the Muslims trapped in the school were in danger of starvation. When the U.N. Rapporteur asked for permission to visit the school, local Serb authorities told him he would not be allowed to do so without the authorization of the village mayor who, they said, was away "visiting the battlefront." This was despite the fact that one of the Serbian authorities present was the president of the Regional Executive Council.

In another instance, they tried to visit the military camp known as Manjaca, near Banja Luka, which is said to be the largest detention camp on Bosnian territory under the control of ethnic Serbs. The officer in charge informed them that 3,000 prisoners of war were currently incarcerated there. However, when the team asked for permission to visit, the officer refused. He said the prisoners were "tired of being visited by international missions." Several weeks later the mission received information, including photographs, that showed many prisoners at the camp in poor health, including signs of malnutrition, and in some cases torture. Well-informed sources estimated that there was likely a much higher number of prisoners in the camp than the officials admitted.

The team found conditions in one of the camps, known as Trnopolje, particularly shocking. They saw more than 3,000 men, women, and children living in unbearably crowded conditions in three buildings and a few small houses. They were sleeping on thin blankets and lice-infested straw, drinking contaminated water and surviving on bread and little else. The physician on the mission found that "upper respiratory infection was spreading like wildfire." Children and adults were also suffering from diarrhea, exacerbated by a near-total absence of sanitation.

"There are diabetics without insulin, heart patients without digitalis, and persons suffering from hypertension without medication," reported Mr. Mazowiecki.

In addition to the horrors perpetrated upon Muslim adults, the mission found that sick and dying Muslim children are being turned away from local hospitals. This was confirmed by a witness from Bosanska Dubica, who said that Serbian soldiers boasted in her presence about how many Muslims they had killed. In the local villages, Serbian authorities had imposed a curfew from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. during which the soldiers burned Muslim homes and a mosque. Injured Muslim and Croatian children were refused treatment at the local hospital.

In another area, the city and region of Bihac, the mission learned from the director of the local hospital that 51 children had been killed during the siege and shelling of the city.

Central Bosnia is now virtually unreachable by road. In October, Mr. Mazowiecki and his team traveled on the only usable road from Split, on the Croatian coast, inland to Travnik and Zenica. The road, known as the "Salvation Road," is narrow, mountainous, and dangerous. Covered in winter snow, it is impassable.

Mr. Mazowiecki writes that what is happening in Sarajevo, once a model of tolerance and inter-ethnic harmony, is of urgent concern. During their visit, his team met with religious authorities and representatives of non-governmental organizations. They confirmed that Sarajevo is a "dying city." The delivery of humanitarian aid is now extremely difficult. Public systems of electricity and water no longer function. People are actually dying in the streets from hunger and exhaustion.

Mr. Mazowiecki concludes that thousands of people would not have to seek refuge outside of the former Yugoslavia if their security could be guaranteed and they could be provided with both sufficient food supplies and adequate medical care. He recommends creating "security zones" and opening humanitarian relief corridors as soon as possible. He stresses that it is no longer viable to argue that providing refuge for displaced Muslims is to be an accomplice to ethnic cleansing. He criticizes the policy of the ICRC which forces families to cross through dangerous combat zones before reaching safety. At this stage, he believes "nothing should override the imperative of saving their lives."

In addition, the special Rapporteur proposes that the highest authorities of all the religious communities call for a "common day of prayer for human dignity, human rights, and peace."

The atrocities enumerated in the report leave the reader saddened and sickened. One cannot but be angered at the callous arrogance with which the U.N. representative was treated by many of the accomplices to the horror. It must be noted that former inmates of Serbian detention camps who have been quoted in various newspapers have been unanimous in agreeing that their treatment improved in August soon after the international media began to report on conditions in the camps. The world must not allow the perpetrators to work in the dark.

Andrea W. Lorenz is the features editor for the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.