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Thursday, April 11,1996 9AOfficials detain 13 boarding busCHECKPOINT CHARLIE, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — By the busload they came, across America’s Checkpoint Charlie, back home into the arms of their loved ones.For 211 Muslim men, most of them soldiers, the war ended Wednesday when they crossed into Bosnian government territory at this checkpoint after being held for eight months in detention camps in Serbia.But the reunion was marred at the last minute when officials in Serbia took away 13 Muslim men as they boarded the buses, drawing an angry protest from the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.The refugee convoy was the first since the Dayton peace accord to pass through Bosnian Serb territory. It was also seen as an important step towards resettling Bosnians in their hometowns, which officials say is a nec-essaiy condition for peace to take hold in the region.Five buses rolled about 75 miles from Serbia through the Serb half of Bosnia and to this checkpoint in the neutral zone, watched over by 25 American soldiers. They arrived in Muslim-controlled towns just before noon.Two American helicopters secured the way for the refugees, flying over mountains and valleys dotted by roofless homes destroyed in the war.Less than a mile from Checkpoint Charlie, named for the Charlie platoon that operates it, the big buses were unable to passnew sneakers and jeans and carrying small bags of food and mineral water provided by the U.N. refugee agency. They appeared stunned and grim, but showed no outward signs of beatings some said they had endured.Some said they had been mis treated during the first month of their detention, but that conditions improved after visits from the International Red Cross.“I was beaten with sticks and electric cables,” said Sead Gladovic, a 30-year-old soldier who was held in SljiVovica. “For the first 13 days, we got one meal a day.”Gladovic said the meal consisted of a 12-ounce can of fish and about a quarter-pound of bread. He said the refugees first had to sleep on a concrete floor but later, after the Red Cross visited, they were given beds.The 13 men detained by the Serbian government Wednesday were prevented from getting on buses in Sljivovica, said Randolph Ryan, a U.N. refugee spokesman in Sarajevo. He said Serbian officials said they were wanted for investigation of war crimes.“This is totally unacceptable,”said Ron Redmond, a U.N. refugee spokesman in Geneva. “These people are refugees.”He said th'e agency had submitted a written protest to the Serbian government demanding the men’s immediate release.Jean Wenker, a Red Cross delegate, said he visited the two camps regularly beginning about a week after the refugees were placed there at the end of July.Wenker would not disclose what he saw or what the refugees told him, but said Serbian authorities were cooperative.Associated PressAn unidentified Bosnian Army soldier, center, greets a friend, right, who was freed from detention in Serb territory shortly after his arrival at Checkpoint Charlie (a border between Serb and Bosnian held areas) Wednesday.over a narrow wooden bridge.The refugees got off, walked over the bridge and boarded other buses on the other side that took them to the town of Kalesija and, for some, long-overdue reunions with their families.Sakib Rizvic, a 41-year-old soldier from Srebrenica, embraced his wife, Suhra, 30, whom he hadn’t seen for four years. She wept. They kissed.“I never, no single night, fell asleep without praying for him,” Suhra said. “I wish all women who do not know where their husbands are will experience such happiness as I experienced today.”Like Sakib, many of the men are soldiers from Zepa and Srebrenica, towns under U.N. protection that fell to the Bosnian Serbs last July and have come to symbolize the brutality of the Bosnian War. More than 7,000 Srebrenica men are still missing and believed massacred.The men who returned Wednesday said they fled to Serbia despite the country’s support for the Bosnian Serbs because it was their only chance to survive.They were detained for the last eight months in two camps in Sljivovica and Mitrovo Polje, small towns near Serbia’s border with Bosnia. Because they were held in Serbia, they were considered refugees, not war prisoners.The refugees arrived wearing
Newspaper Details
Cumberland Times News
Cumberland, Maryland, US
Thu, Apr 11, 1996
Page 9
Full Page
Clipped by
Barry M.
USA 16 Dec 2020
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