SUN, 26 AUG 2001 21:16:38 GMT

Refugees Suing the State of Serbia for Illegally Sending them to War

Forcibly Mobilised Demand Indemnification

People, who had previously experienced all kinds of horrors and came to Serbia running from them, were sent to war. Instead of finding protection they were mobilised, dressed in uniforms, captured and exposed to all kinds of atrocities. After the fall of Milosevic's regime 643 indemnity suits were filed. It is estimated that in this illegal way several thousand people had been unlawfully taken to war.

AIM, Beograd, August 3, 2001

In the shadow of accusations raised against some "big fish" who abused the privileges under the previous regime, hundreds of court proceedings are being conducted before the Serbian courts in which the citizens are suing the state for unlawfully depriving them of liberty and sending them to war in Croatia and Bosnia&Herzegovina in 1995. Many lost their lives there, although they had sought shelter in Serbia in order to escape from war. The state authorities of Serbia handed them over to the then Republic of Serbian Krajina (RSK) and the Republic of Srpska (RS). This was all done in contravention of the Convention on the Status of Refugees, which prohibits forcible return of exiled persons to war areas.

People, who previously experienced all kinds of horrors and came to Serbia running from them, were sent to war. Instead of finding protection they were mobilised, dressed in uniforms, captured and exposed to all kinds of ordeals. There were some among them who had been tortured in Croatia, arrested in Serbia and detained in Bosnia&Herzegovina.

With the assistance of the Fund for Humanitarian Law, the first suit against Serbia was filed already in 1996. At that time only eleven forcibly mobilised people had courage to sue Serbia for unlawfully depriving them of freedom and sending them to war areas. They demanded indemnity for the injustice Serbia had done them and everything they had to endure on the front and in captivity. According to the ruling of the Belgrade Court, Serbia is responsible not only for actions of the MUP (Ministry of the Interior) members, but also liable for compensating the damages refugees outside Serbia had suffered by being forcibly mobilised and unlawfully handed over.

After the fall of Milosevic's regime, under which such things could easily happen, the number of refugees' suits filed against the state of Serbia increased. The reason is that those injured summoned up courage hoping to get better treatment by courts. According to the data of the Fund for Humanitarian Law 643 suits are pending trial before courts of Serbia in which the refugees are demanding indemnification.

The First Municipal Court in Belgrade brought a decision according to which the state of Serbia owes Rade Cosic, forcibly mobilised refugee from Croatia, 30 thousand dinars for the compensation of damages. Those who were first to claim indemnification never got their symbolic compensations because, as a rule, higher courts reversed the original rulings, disregarding the horrors that refugees and their immediate families went through because the Serbian police had unlawfully arrested and surrendered them to the RSK and RS authorities. To add insult to injury, some of those forcibly taken to war were later on placed on lists of war criminals on account of their participation in the war and now cannot return to Croatia.

In spring 1995, the police in Serbia, with the assistance of the special groups from RSK and RK launched months-long manhunt in Belgrade and other places all over Serbia in which the refugees were hiding. They arrested people in their homes, in streets, on city buses in coffee bars.

Tens of thousands of people were hiding from the Serbian authorities which rallied them in collection centres and from there sent further on to the Republics of former Yugoslavia wherefrom they had fled from war atrocities with their wives and children. Only accidental witnesses of these actions knew of this massive manhunt, because the state-controlled media did not inform the public of this. No excuse could save them, not even illness. The then commander of the RSK Army, Mile Mrksic, against whom the Hague Tribunal has issued an indictment, used to say that no one could be ill when the defence of the Serbian state was in question.

Wives and relatives of the captured tried to get in touch with those forcibly mobilised, the majority of whom went to war wearing just what they had on when arrested. Many went in slippers or short pants. They asked for help some deputies of the RSK Assembly, who mostly offered a comforting answer that the defence of the state was the most honourable task. Those were the same people who at the same time resold gasoline and other much sought after goods in Belgrade.

Although the exact number of people who fought against their own will is not known, it is estimated that several thousands of them had to fight in parts which they had abandoned fleeing from war horrors. They spent several months on the front, because in August 1995 Croatia defeated the RSK Army. However, this did not mean the end of troubles for those forcibly mobilised. In that war whirlwind many were killed and many more captured, while only a small number managed to once again get to Serbia just to join queues in front of foreign Embassies seeking permanent residence in their countries.

The prisoners were exposed to harassment and hard labour. Those who survived were saved because the International Red Cross had registered them on time, or because Bosnia&Herzegovina and Croatia, where they had been captured, used them as witnesses that Serbia sent people to war wanting to show the international community that Serbia had its part in these wars, although its then authorities persistently rejected such accusations. Under the pressure of international institutions, most of prisoners were set free after several months spent in prison, but with such consequences that some of them had to undergo medical treatment for a long time after that. Those who lost their limbs in the war remained invalids handicapped for life.

Ratomir Petkovic

(AIM)