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LEGACY OF WAR

Quiet Despair of the Ghost Villages

Jo-Anne Velin writes from Knin, Croatia
Most Serbs fled their former Republic of Kta-jina when it was recaptured by Croatia last August. But few Croats are eager to move to the I war-ravaged region, where Gemini News Ser- : vice found a handful of mostly old and lonely people clinging to a harsh existence.THE villages in the part of Croatia that was called Krajina are no longer burning. The looters have gone, and now. five months later, many places resemble ghost towns.
Dushka sits quietly-in her-home and waits. She Ilves in ,Knin, once the capital of the» territory that Serb nationalists declared Independent from Croatia in 1991 and called the Serb Republic of the Krajina. The region was recaptured by the Croatian Army In "Operation Storm" last August.
Dushka. 39. is one of the few who decided not to join the overnight exodus of almost 200,000 Krajina Serbs who fled ter Serbia from the Croatian offensive and subsequent violent attacks on civilians and property. Now. only about 8.000 Serbs remain in the region, the vast majority of whom are over 70 years old.
Dushka lives alone. Her teenage children are in Serbia. Her husband died two years ago from kidney disease. She decided to stay because. even though she is a Croatian .citizen. she feared that if she lertshe would lose . the house she and her husband built with money they earned during six years working abroad.
The Croatian constitution guarantees the rights of all citizens to retain their private property. However, tough bureaucratic hurdles were erected after Operation Storm that make it extremely difficult for Serbs living abroad to retain property in Croatia. The Croatian Helsinki Committee for Human Rights says this dellber ately undermines constitutionalguarantees.
"What the Croatian Gov eminent Is doing is illegal.' says committee president Ivan Zvonimir Cicak.
Knin is a depressed, war-lorn town that seems strangely hollow. Few children can be seen playing in the streets. Local authorities say most Croats originally from the town who were chased out by Serb nationalists in 1991 live elsewhere in the country or have* left Croatia.
Croat refugees pushed by Serbs out of Banja Luka in Bosnia-Herzegovina dwell in war-damaged houses and flats. Most of these newly-arrived families receive some financial support from Zagreb.
The picture is even grimmer in the counUyside, particularly in the South. The rugged terrain around Knin is difficult to cultivate. For generations. the area was largely Serb and poor. No refugees from anywhere are moving in now. The hamlets lie almost deserted, blackened and bar ren. A Uny number of elderly Serb civilians chose to stay or were left behind by their families.
Treacherous roads twist their way to the burnt-out homes of Plavno Valley. Three old Serb women in one hamlet. Basinac. where most dwellings were de-
stroyed. are surrounded by' few of the* sounds of their previous lives — no children’s cries, no motor engines.' hardly any livestock; just the i rain, their own voices- and a ; clucking chicken. ;
Life is harsh. The women I are Croatian citizens and en-; titled to old age pensions and' social assistance. None of this’ can be obtained, however.; because the authorities are ignoring them. '
A Croatian non-govern-1 ment organisation, the Dal- i matian Solidarity Committee : (DOS), advises people living in the region of their rights to stay on their property and; to receive a pension and protection.
"Compared with the Croat refugees from Bosnia, these people are neglected by the* authorities. They could become much more indepen-; dent if they had their pensions." saysOlja Simic, a DOS organiser.
Some humanitarian organisations maintain a small presence that is expected to continue* after United Nations peacekeeping divisions pull out of Krajina in the next few weeks. They scour the empty villages, looking for who is left and offering them food and medicines. In Plavno Valley. Italian volunteers spread out among the villages to help the isolated old people with chores and words of comfort and reassurance.
"Maybe It helps the security of the old people," says one volunteer.
Many revenge attacks on Serbs and their property came in the immediate wake of "Operation Storm". These mirrored the raids of the early 1990s. when Krajina Serb nationalists ransacked and burned Croat property, and killed and assaulted civilians.
Reports filed by various official observers suggest that systematic and widespread human rights violations were carried out last summer by men dressed in Croatian military or police uniform. The abuses included cases of murder.
The local Croatian commander at the time blamed this behaviour on lawlessness. which, he said, he was unable to control. Diplomatic observers believe the claim to be largely disingenuous. Few of these crimes have been punished in court.
Dushka lives without community. A wood fire burns in the kitchen; an electric heater warms the living room. "My daughter phones me." she says "Many people would like to return. Life is very bad in Serbia — no house, no money, nothing. But in Knin. no-one wants Serbs back. Look what has happened.
'They say I’m mad to live here alone. But how can I move to nothing?" she asks, gesturing towards the kitchen. Tlere I have everything."
JOANNE VELIN is a Canadian freelance Journalist based tn Geneva.