- Title: CROATIA: CROATIAN REFUGEES SCEPTICAL ABOUT ANY PACTS WITH SERBS
- Date: 13th November 1995
- Summary: ZAGREB AND OSIJEK, CROATIA (NOVEMBER 13, 1995) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) ZAGREB, CROATIA 1. SV MAKESHIFT SHELTERS IN REFUGEE CAMP (3 SHOTS) 0.14 2. SV JOSIP (SURNAME UNKNOWN) A REFUGEE FROM VUKUVAR SAYING THOSE WHO SIGNED THE AGREEMENT (IN DAYTON, OHIO, UNITED STATES) SHOULD GO AND LIVE IN VUKOVAR WITH THEIR CHILDREN (CROATI
- Embargoed: 28th November 1995 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: ZAGREB AND OSIJEK, CROATIA
- City:
- Country: Croatia
- Reuters ID: LVA7N14VGYRADB4WZDBRDBCPSOWT
- Story Text: Croatian refugees form Eastern Slavonia expressed scepticism on Monday (November 13) about a pact to reincorporate a rebel Serb enclave into Croatia without war.
Many did not think Sunday's agreement in Dayton, Ohio on a peaceful reintegration of Eastern Slavonia into Croatia would work in practice and feared their return to Eastern Slavonia would not be possible.
Eastern Slavonia, a fertile strip of farmland studded with oil wells on the sensitive Danube river border with Serbia, was one of three enclaves seized by minority Serbs in a 1991 revolt against Croatia's secession from Yugoslavia.
Some 250,000 Croats were driven out by Serb militants, including the 90,000 majority in Eastern Slavonia where Serb forces besieged and demolished the Danube city of Vukovar.
Josip, a refugee form Vukovar currently living in one of Zagreb's refugee camps, said: "Let those who signed this agreement go and live in Vukovar now, and take their children there".
"Serbs who fled from Knin are in Vukovar now and they will stay. If we go back we will always be a minority and won't be able to ever decide on anything," said another man.
Women in the camp would not go into politics, but said it would be very difficult for them to go back after "all evil that had been done".
One woman said she would go back only if she could walk into Vukovar with a Croatian flag and put it on her house.
A young man said that he could not live together with people who killed his father and burned his house.
The same mood prevailed in one of numerous refugee camps near Osijek, where one old woman said she thought the Croatian government had sold them out and a man from Baranja said the whole agreement was just another Serb manipulation.
The Croatian army would not officialy comment on the agreement but a soldier in Osijek said it seemed like only civilians were deciding on signing this agreement.
"We, soldiers have a completely different oppinion on all this," he said.
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