In addition to help at border crossings, Women in Black visited refugee acceptance centers in Sabac, Loznica, Nova Pazova, Kusadak, Azanja and Smederevska Palanka. Of course, after August 1995, we continued to our previous work in refugee camps.
“Pictures from Sapca are terrible. Not in my wildest imagination could I think that people live in such a situation. They have no cigarettes or milk. They throw away anything that they don’t consider immediately necessary. Stasa was in a room full of old women who talked in their sleep and slowly died. They were abandoned by everyone because they ‘are too slow on the road’” (August 12, 1995).
“We arrived in Nova Pazova. Violeta and I held the packets that we brought and people gathered around us. The circle tightened around us. We shared with them beans, the first cooked dish they have had in weeks. Secretly, I noticed how they protected us. We quickly we ran out of pots with beans” (August 12, 1995).
INFORMING THE DOMESTIC AND INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC ABOUT THE SERBIAN GOVERNMENT’S REPRESSION OF EXPELLED CITIZENS
“In Kusadak, near Smederevska Palanka, 800 expelled people spent nearly two days in the open. The authorities gave them only water. They did not allow them to make telephone calls. These people refused to follow an order sending them to Kosovo. When a small group of women had the courage to run away, the police chased them through cornfields and forcefully returned them to the group. The next morning, the police gathered them up and took them away to an unknown location” (August 15, 1995).
“At 1pm, numerous police patrols arrived at the Zemun community center. It was assumed that they were acting on an order of the Commission for Serbian Refugees. All refugees were arrested and taken away in an unknown location (August 15, 1995).
“It is certain that absolutely all the refugees refuse to go to Kosovo. They are very conscious that if they went, they would be politically misused by the regime. As one of them said, ‘they involved us in war for the past five years. Now, they want to use us for another war’” (August 15, 1995).
“The exodus of Serbs from Croatia is now widely shown to increase the likelihood of the eventual partition of Bosnia-Herzegovina into Serbian and Croatian territory. The biggest victims will continue to be citizens of Bosnian nationality, primarily those who want to live together. We forbid the political manipulation of their misfortune! We forbid a new Hrtkovac, such as those that exist in Ruman and Novi Banovac! This is Milošević’s war and soon it will grow. The militaries of the Serbian and Tuđman regime will be stronger and they will fight against other nations as well as their own people” (August 10, 1995).
INFORMING THE DOMESTIC AND INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC ABOUT STATE-ORGANIZED BEATINGS, PROGROMS AND THE MALTREATMENT OF THE PERSECUTED - MEN AND THEIR VIOLENT MOBILIZATION TO THE BATTLEFIELD.
“All able-bodied men of military age from the so-called Republika Srpska are prohibited from entering Serbia. At the same time, there is an ongoing calling up of refugees from the Krajina to the fronts in Bosnia or eastern Slavonia. For example, 1,500 refugees from the Krajina were deported from acceptance centers in Niš and Bor. Around 1,000 were practically kidnapped by the police and taken away to Bijeljina. They refused to go to the front and fight in the streets of that city” (August 24, 1995).
“After the families arrive and are provided for, usually in Vojvodina, many of the men were mobilized in a unit of the Yugoslav Army and paramilitary units in Baranja, east Slavonia and west Srem. Those who remained were saved by the persistent and brave resistance of their mothers, wives, sisters and daughters” (August 20, 1995).
“In the face of the terrible pressure on refugees from the Krajina, they organized themselves and supported each other. They quickly collected signatures against mobilizations. The following is part of their announcement: ‘we are not dogs of war. After five years of war in which we all lost, in which we were banished from our homes, we want to live in peace and build our future. Our slogan is "peace has no alternative" (August 24, 1995).
“Women expressed their discontent by blocking borders. They did not want to be responsible for the misfortune of their sons, husbands, brothers and fathers if they crossed to the other side. Hundreds of women lied on the ground blocking acceptance points for refugees. Others blocked the way with vehicles. The persistent women achieved their goal. The government of Yugoslavia was forced to satisfy their demands and the exit of military conscripts from the so-called Serbian Republic of Krajina was permitted, although they had to show their documents and all information related to their military obligations to police authorities at the border” (August 19, 1995).
INFORMING THE DOMESTIC AND INTERNATIOANL PUBLIC ABOUT THE ETHNIC CLEANSING OF NON-SERB PEOPLE
“Attacks on other ethnicities in Serbia are increasing. It is primarily in reaction to the deportation from Croatia and the capture of houses in Srem (Surcn, Novi Banovci, Slankamen and Golubinci) as well as in Bača. All of these attacks produced radical Serbian nationalism. Ultranationalist parties and groups demand the deportation from Serbia of all people who are not ethnically Serb” (August 20, 1995).
“Sinisa Vucnic, a leader of a Serbian paramilitary unit, publicly said to prepare a list of Croatian citizens in Belgrade and their places of residence. This Cetnik commander threatened that he will settle accounts with the biggest enemies of the Serbian people. The Belgrade Circle, Women in Black and the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia are included on this enemies list” (August 1995).
“The most enraged manifestation of political revenge occurred in Banja Luka, a city under the control of Bosnian Serbs, where over just a few days when the Krajina was attacked, 50,000 people of Muslim and Croatian ethnicity were deported. It was also recorded that a list of Muslims who would be ‘humanely removed’ was made in the Republika Srpska. This mainly happened in Sanski Most and Prijedor” (August 1995).
