PRESS RELEASE

For immediate release : 29 April 1998

Immediate Measures Urged in Response to the Drvar Violence

The past ten days have seen a resurgence of violence in Bosnia directed against ethnic minorities attempting to return to their pre-war homes. The most serious of these incidents took place in the western town of Drvar under the control of the Croat Defence Forces (HVO), targeting a group of Serb returnees who have worked closely with the international community and have become a model for other moderate displaced persons movements across the country.

The violence in Drvar began in the early afternoon of Friday 24 April. A crowd gathered in the town centre and attacked the municipal building, an apartment block with recent Serb returnees (vacated a few days earlier by the HVO), the International Police Task Force (IPTF) station, and other international offices. Two local police officers stood by as the crowd attacked the elected Drvar Mayor and leader of displaced Serbs, Mile Marceta, in his office. Wounded, Marceta sought refuge in the IPTF station. He was dragged out, beaten further and left for dead; only helicopter evacuation to a Stabilisation Force (SFOR) hospital saved his life. During the first hour of the riot, international monitors reported seeing the recently dismissed Deputy Mayor and local Hrvatska demokratska zajednica (HDZ) leader, Drago Tokmakcija, and several off-duty police officers in the crowd, which was composed mainly of military-age men. SFOR filmed the incident and monitors asserted that many of the rioters were from out of town. Following the incidents, approximately 150 recent Serb returnees left Drvar for Banja Luka. Throughout the weekend, organised Croat bands, some communicating with hand-held radios, threatened other Serb returnees in outlying villages.

The violence came after a tense week in Drvar. Following the murder of two elderly Serb returnees in Drvar on 16 April, the Office of the High Representative (OHR) and the IPTF dismissed the Croat Deputy Mayor of Drvar, the local Chief of Police and the Cantonal Interior Minister. SFOR and IPTF, particularly concerned about unrest at the funeral of the victims, beefed up their security presence. When the anticipated problems did not materialise, however, security in Drvar was relaxed. SFOR ended low-level helicopter flights over the city that had been initiated after the murders, and reinforcements that had been brought in withdrew on Friday morning. Yet the signs of ongoing extremist activity in Drvar were evident. International monitors reported the presence of a number of unfamiliar vehicles from hard-line Croat areas such as West Mostar and Kiseljak, as well as several vehicles cruising the town without license plates. Shop-owners told monitors on Friday morning that they would be closed because of a "big event".

The fingerprints of the HDZ leadership are all over the events in Drvar. In addition, the proximity of HVO forces and the accounts given by eyewitnesses strongly suggest HVO complicity. This, combined with the organised nature of the riots and the participation of agents from hard-line HDZ territory, is strong evidence that the incidents were approved by HDZ. The 24 April violence was the logical extension of consistent obstruction of multiethnic policing by cantonal authorities under HDZ control, and a persistent terror campaign in Drvar, including the recent murders and the torching of over 50 homes and barns.

If those responsible for the violence in Drvar continue to enjoy impunity, surely they will draw the conclusion that they can repeat their actions elsewhere, the prospects for future minority returns will be endangered, and with it, hopes for a lasting peace will vanish. Already, there are foreboding signs of a similar situation developing in Stolac. During the last month alone, more than 30 houses of potential minority returnees to the area have been destroyed with explosives.

Violence against minority returnees must be viewed within the context of a grave breach of obligations set forth in Annex 1A of the DPA, indeed a failure of Bosnian authorities to "provide a safe and secure environment for all persons in their respective jurisdiction." The international community must take urgent and robust action to stop the cycle of such breaches. Otherwise, the "year of minority returns" risks degenerating rapidly into a year of violence with grave consequences to the peace process. With its "primary mission ... to contribute to a secure environment necessary for the consolidation of peace" and with "primary tasks" that include the obligation "to deter or prevent a resumption of hostilities or new threats to peace", SFOR must assume significant responsibility for the prevention of further violence.

ICG urges the following immediate measures:

  • OHR must establish a senior-level presence in Drvar for a minimum period of three months and for as long as Mayor Marceta is prevented from taking effective control of his office;
  • SFOR checkpoints must be set up to control access to the Drvar municipality as well as Drvar town and vehicles entering the area must be searched for weapons;
  • SFOR must confine all HVO soldiers in the area to their barracks and order their removal from the town as well as a periphery of at least 10 km within two weeks;
  • IPTF must decertify police officers who took part in the mob violence; � IPTF must redouble efforts to reintegrate Serb officers in the local police force, but only after a secure environment in the area has been established; and
  • the HDZ leadership must be declared persona non grata in the municipality until (1) those responsible for the mob violence have been arrested by the police, (2) the cantonal authorities have made a credible effort to prosecute those individuals, and (3) "Radio Drvar" assumes a constructive role in calming the situation in the municipality.

Moreover, the US and the European Union must initiate a concerted and credible effort, not just another warning, to isolate the leadership of Croatia for the continuing support provided to the hard-line Bosnian HDZ. In this context, the international community must take into consideration inflammatory and seriously distorted television broadcasts from Zagreb which frequently appeal to hard-line Bosnian Croats.

For further information, please contact ICG in Sarajevo at (387 71) 447 845, 447 846 or 200 447, Brussels at 322-502-9038, or Washington at 202-986-9750.

The International Crisis Group is a private, multinational organisation created to reinforce the capacity and resolve of the international community to prevent crises arising from human causes. Members of the ICG board include former heads of state and government, foreign ministers, MPs and leading figures in business and the media. ICG is chaired by the former US Senate majority leader, George Mitchell.

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