Peasants Set to Defend Right to Be Serbian the FLAG with the Red Star by Robert Fox in Trpinja, Eastern Croatia Gone, Said a Young Guard
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Peasants set to defend right to be Serbian THE FLAG with the red star By Robert Fox in Trpinja, eastern Croatia gone, said a young guard. And fluttering from the combine now they are protected by two harvester in the middle of the sandbags. Fifty yards down atian National Guardsman It seems inevitable that the federal army tanks prowling barricade proclaims the tiny the road a second system of looking across at the Serbs ethnic divide is coloured by the banks of the Danube in village of Trpinja-to be a piece firing positions covers this defending Trpinja. "Those religion and ideology; the the middle distance. of Croatia that is forever Ser- front line, and several hun- Serbs over there are not Croats believe the Serbs are The town of Borovo has a bian — at least as far as its dred yards to the left a heavy democratic." either Orthodox or commu- population of 10,000, with peasant defenders are machine-gun has been mount- Democratic or not, the Cro- nist, whereas they are Catho- another 10,000 in the neigh- concerned. ed in a farm trailer. atian Home Guard forces in lic and nationalists. bouring villages of the pre- The harvester and two The arc of fire covers the the villages of Borovo Natalje In a garden shed a new pat- dominantly Serbian Borovo large harrows block the road length of the road approach- and Borovo Selo seem less rol of guardsmen had set up Selo and Borovo Naselje, and no traffic is allowed to ing the village from the east. prepared and trained than the an observation post to spy on which is mostly Croatian. pass to the main market town In the maize and wheat fields, Serbian sentries eyeing them the predominantly Serbian In the town of Borovo, of Osijek guarding the River observation posts and through binoculars across the village of Borovo Selo. "No I Tomi Savic, 31, has seen it all, Drava where it meets the trenches are half-hidden. At fields. don't know any Serbs over and now he has had enough. Danube. Only a favoured local'* least some must conceal The three villages at Bor- there," said Drogan, 25, a for- He is sending his family to few are allowed to pass into heavy support weapons such ovo have seen action on two mer waiter, now professional Stuttgart, Germany. the village. as machine-guns, and possi- days and nights this week, guardian of his country. He says the trouble has "The British press! BBC! bly mortars; these are profes- but it was mostly sounds and "I only speak to them with been brewing for more than Liars, all liars! We Serbians sional defences. a spectacle, rather than fatal- this," he added tapping his 20 years, and it will not disap- do not need them. They are There are signs that the ity in the ripening corn. new machine-gun. "Actually pear quickly. wrong about us and our Serbian communities, backed On Wednesday, hundreds I haven't fired it at all or been "There have always been army," shouted the guard by armed militiamen and ele- of rounds and hand grenades in a fight yet," he said. brawls in the bars between commander, a huge rough- ments of the predominantly were loosed off in Borovo Na- Most of the weapons appear Serbs and Croats. Now this is shaven figure. A sentry in Serbian army, are preparing talje. Banijska Nova with its to be new. Their sights look much worse, because there dungarees nods vigorous to defend their turf, espe- neat houses among the as if they have not been are so many guns about the approval, while a companion cially in mixed enclaves on blooming roses is now the zeroed, let alone the weapons place. sneaks off into the maize field Croatia's fringes. street of a thousand pock- fired in anger. There is a "I will tell you this, and I to take up a firing position. This is the new focus of marks from Kalashnikov bul- tragi-comic air in the pla- think this is why someone The cohort is anxious for us Yugoslavia's crisis; the main lets, bazookas and bombs. toon's deployment. Bullet like you from northern to be gone, and soon. Closer act of a drama that some have A patrol of Croatian holes in several of the gates Europe cannot understand inspection reveals the reason. feared since the death of Tito. National Guards eagerly look as if they were from Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia is After a day of negotiating Now the choice is between a showed broken windows, weapons fired by defenders obsessed with the Second dozens of checkpoints bloody marriage, which is the blasted walls, garden gates inside, rather than by ma- World War. manned by Croatian, Serbian Serbian option for continuing and doors which were riddled. rauding bands from neigh- "We cannot forget what or Yugoslav federal forces the present federation, or a "Look the Chetniks [Ser- bouring village. happened then, the division this is the most professional messy divorce, which might bian guerrillas] have spared Elsewhere it appeared that of brother against brother in position we have seen. eventually fulfill the dream of the houses where the Serbs a good percentage of the bul- the war of the partisans and Behind the agricultural independence of the Cro- used to live," hisses Mikail let holes were caused by the the Ustashi [Croatian fas- roadblock men with army atians and their allies. Horvat. "They only struck Croatians firing at shadows in cists]. Germany can now start rifles man trenches, with "We are the democratic the homes of the Catholics" the trees and the maize. forgetting the war, but we embrasures reinforced with roadblock," boasted the Cro- — meaning the Croatians. The Serbian bandits have can't." .