Mental barriers linger for Bosnian Serbs

December 6, 1995
Web posted at: 6:25 a.m. EST (1125 GMT)

From Correspondent Brent Sadler

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (CNN) -- NATO's biggest challenge in Sarajevo will be to overcome the mindset of a large Serbian population haunted by a sense of isolation and some imperceptible fears.

Sarajevo may no longer resemble the killing fields, but the hostilities between the Serbs and the Moslems which fueled a nearly four-year-long war remain.

Months of shelling and gunfire have beaten this once-bustling capital into an eerie calm, broken only by protests against the Bosnian peace accord, which stipulates that Sarajevo will be controlled by the Bosnian government.

In a sense, the presence of the United Nations is reassuring to the Serbs, for the day it leaves and NATO takes over, the peace accord will truly go into effect. Sarajevo's Serbs will have to hand over to the other side what they've fought and died to keep.

An elderly woman in Sarajevo's market is extremely bitter about losing Sarajevo. "No, No," she cried. "It's ours, not theirs ... that can't happen."

A young girl fears violent retribution from the Bosnian Serbs. "They killed my father," she said. "I don't know what they do to me -- my future ... maybe they kill me" (119K AIFF sound or 119K WAV sound)

The Serbs blame the United States for forcing unacceptable territorial concessions on them. Some Serbs said if they can't have Sarajevo, they won't live there anymore. "I will take whatever I can carry and leave, and live in a tent," said one woman. "I won't stay here."

The mentality of war -- and hatred -- persists against a backdrop of dangling sniper screens and demarcation lines strewn with mines.

Under the peace plan, Serb soldiers are supposed to withdraw from Sarajevo. B ut Lakeovic Vukota, who battled to hang on to this rubble-strewn district, said he and his comrades will not go. "I'm a soldier made from this war to protect my people, my family," he said. "You cannot separate the soldier from the family."

Yielena Peyecich, carrying her infant daughter, bids a tearful goodbye to half her family. They're all Serbs, split by the war and brought briefly together after a year apart. Soldiers guide her through the barbed-wire fences.

Long after U.N. soldiers swap their blue helmets for NATO colors, the physical obstacles should come down, but the mental barriers will painfully stay the same, the ethnic divide will remain deep.

Mental barriers linger for Bosnian Serbs

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