Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.metro From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Optimism in Vukovar Date: Fri, 6 Nov 92 11:28:29 EST Message-ID: \SE B;METROPOLITAN;WORLD \HD Optimism in Vukovar \SH Serbs hopeful cleansing will finish Croats \BY Mark H. Milstein \CR SPECIAL TO THE WASHINGTON TIMES \DT VUKOVAR, Croatia VUKOVAR, Croatia - Business is booming at the Serbian Crown, one of the city's few buildings not shattered by tank or artillery fire, and the bar's proprietor boasts that "in five years this city will be better than before." "By then," said Svetislav Petkovich, 54, "all traces of Croatian influence will be gone. "Etnicko discenje," he beamed. Ethnically cleansed. Nine teen-age boys and an AWOL border patrolman whose wooden shoes had been cobbled together with twine and roofing nails sat in the small brick-faced bar at the lower end of Preradoviceva-Ulica. It was on this street of once-tidy homes on Mitnica Hill that Vukovar's Croatian defenders made their bloody final stand in September. After three months of neighborhood-to-neighborhood, street-to-street and finally house-to-house fighting, Vukovar, a bustling light-manufacturing city of 60,000 along the Danube River, lay in complete ruin, a modern-day Stalingrad. The fronts of many homes still bear Serbian Orthodox "Chetnik" symbols or Croatian Catholic crosses. These hastily painted signs were employed to ward off "cleansing" efforts by the armies that viciously swept back and forth through these streets. But as the advantage shifted, a sign that assured protection at one moment could bring on exile, torture or death at the next. "The Croats wanted to take Vukovar for themselves. This is Serbia," said Darko, 17, finishing off a beer while keeping one eye on a Bruce Lee video on the bar's TV. "We had to get rid of them. It was either us or them." Three of Darko's friends and Melita, the 26-year-old waitress, all said they had Croatian friends before the war but thought Vukovar would be better off without them. "There are still some Croats living here," said Alexander, 17. "They have got to watch themselves. Most of them are married to Serbs, though." Before the Serbian-dominated Yugoslav National Army rolled into Croatia early last summer, Vukovar was nearly 50 percent Croatian and 30 percent Serbian, with ethnic Hungarians and Gypsies making up the rest. "So many of the people of this city are gone forever," said Gordana Jocic, a medical student who stopped in front of the bar. "And why? Because they were Croat. "Look at how we live," she said. "Like ghosts. This city is dead." Indeed, as the world focuses on the methodical strangulation of Sarajevo by Bosnian Serbs, attempts continue to carve out ethnically pure regions in eastern Croatia and Serbian Krajina. British and Russian troops, stationed near Vukovar as part of the United Nations Protection Force, report that efforts to rid the region's towns and villages of non-Serbs still persist, although with reduced frequency. At Cavillino, an attractive cafe sandwiched between the eight-story ruin of Vukovar's Hotel Dunav and the looted remains of a bank, questions about ethnic cleansing elicited only a few dispassionate comments. "We are always looking to get Croats to leave," said Cavillino's owner, a bearded man of about 35 who refused to give his name. "Especially those still married to Serbs. It's a disgrace, don't you see? They are not like us. They need to be with their own kind. "Isn't that right, Lydia? he asked a 24-year-old blond waitress. "Would you want to marry a Croat? No, of course not." Lydia did not reply, turning instead to talk to a friend who has stopped by to listen to an Eric Clapton CD on the bar's stereo system. "Don't forget what the Croats and the Nazis did to Serbians in the last war," said Dom, 21, as he gulped down his third drink and brandished an automatic pistol that he proudly noted was made in Vermont. "They can't be+++ This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM