SERBS THROW STONES AT BUSES CARRYING MUSLIM WOMEN BACK TO HOMETOWN

May 12, 2000 - (AP article in The Canadian Press) Four buses carrying Muslim women back to their hometowns after they had been expelled during the Bosnian war were pelted with stones thrown by Bosnian Serbs. Several people were injured.

The buses had to turn around and leave under NATO escort Thursday, international police reported.

Some 250 Muslim women were travelling to Serb-held Bratunac in eastern Bosnia.They and their families were expelled in the early days of the 1992-95 war as part of an ethnic cleansing campaign.

Roughly 150 Serbs stopped the buses, throwing stones at them, said Douglas Coffman, the spokesman for the UN international police. He said local police arrested 22 people.

The significant presence of local police kept the Serbian crowd away from the buses but did not prevent people from throwing stones, he said.

Ten women were slightly injured, mostly by splintered glass. One of the bus drivers was hit on his arm. Four local policemen and one soldier of the NATO-led peacekeeping force also suffered minor injuries, Coffman said.

Two days ago, the organization of Serbian war-veterans from Bratunac publicly warned the refugees their visit would be viewed as a "politically damaging" provocation and demanded the trip be "postponed because it will not pass without incidents," a statement said.

It explained that 690 families of fallen Serbian soldiers live in the city and that they will gather for the occasion, too, but the Muslim women disregarded the warning.

"We strongly condemn this senseless act," Coffman said, calling it "a clearly organized effort to block the women to visit the town."

More than a million people have not been able to return to their homes since the end of the war.