Fleeing Serbs unearth hurtful memoriesFebruary 25, 1996
Web posted at: 6:55 p.m. EST (2355 GMT)
From Correspondent Brent Sadler
SOKOLAC, Bosnia-Herzegovina (CNN) -- A Serb woman dressed in black stands over her son's grave, her hands clasped and her wails piercing the air. The woman, Yelka Yanic, has just buried her son for the second time.
The scene is a chilling reminder of just how painful the Sarajevo Serb exodus has been. Many fleeing Serbs transported deceased relatives with them and buried them again in Serb territory Sunday.
In Sokolac, gravediggers turned empty lots into makeshift cemeteries in the bitter cold. For Yanic, the second burial rekindled unbearable memories, as if her son had just died.
Across the lot, similar burials take place. One woman lost her husband just five months before the Dayton peace accord was signed.
"I've got my children and sick parents to look after. I don't know what will become of us," she cried.
Meanwhile, the Sarajevo Serb exodus continues. In Ilidza, hundreds of Serbs were leaving before the territory falls under the control of the Muslim-Croat Federation.
Most Serbs are heading to places that will remain in Serb hands, hoping to stay with relatives or move into houses Muslims evacuated during the nearly four-year war.
But as the number of refugees grows, the difficulties of moving them has intensified. NATO troops are failing to prevent random attacks on Serb vehicles, snow-covered roads slow down travel and subzero temperatures have frozen fuel lines on numerous trucks. In one refugee center, Serbs had no electricity and little water.
NATO has agreed to escort Bosnian Serb military trucks into
the demilitarized zone to pick up refugees. And for most
Serbs, there is no turning back.
"The Muslims killed my grandfather during World War II. They left my father an orphan at age nine. My family had lived in Vogosca for five generations, and now I have had to leave the place. It is a disaster," Zoran Petricevic, a former doctor, said.
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