Syndicate: Serbian draft resisters forgotten (WASHINGTON TIMES, January 3, 2000)

[Inke Arns <inke@berlin.snafu.de>]

Date: Tue, 4 Jan 2000 12:04:53 +0100
From: Paola Lucchesi <paola.lucchesi@mail.inet.it>
Subject: Serbian draft resisters forgotten (WASHINGTON TIMES, January 3, 2000)


http://www.washtimes.com/world/News3-20000103.htm

January 3, 2000

Serbian draft resisters forgotten

By Veronique Mistiaen
SPECIAL TO THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Thousands of young men who fled Serbia rather than take part in the war
in Kosovo now find themselves stranded in Hungary, facing long prison
sentences if they go home but denied refugee status in Hungary or any
other NATO country.

BUDAPEST - Thousands of young men who fled Serbia rather than take part in
Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's war in Kosovo now find themselves
stranded in Hungary, facing long prison sentences if they go home but
denied refugee status in Hungary or any other NATO country.
     Many have been held since the Kosovo campaign in Debrecen, a former
Soviet army base made up of rows of dilapidated barracks surrounded by
barbed wire, where they spend their days sitting on iron beds in dank rooms
staring into space.
     This so-called "reception center," housing about 1,000 asylum seekers
from around the world, is just one of the camps holding the Serbian
deserters and draft resisters, some accompanied by wives and children.
Others survive in overcrowded and inadequate private accommodations in
Hungary.
     In the words of Amnesty International, they are "the forgotten
resisters" of the Kosovo war.
     "Throughout the conflict in Kosovo, NATO member states made repeated
calls to those serving in the Yugoslav military to resist their
leadership," said Brian Phillips of Amnesty, one of the few organizations
campaigning on their behalf.
     "Now the men who . . . heeded these calls and the prompting of their
conscience, find themselves in urgent need of protection. But the
governments who issued the calls to resistance appear to take little
interest in the uncertain future facing these men."
     Lorenzo Pasquali, deputy representative for the U.N. High Commissioner
for Refugees (UNHCR) in Budapest, said no one is sure how many Yugoslavs
are living in Hungary, although newspapers have quoted figures up to
20,000. Amnesty and other human rights organizations estimate their numbers
in the thousands.
     Typical of these men is Goran, a 28-year-old Serbian technician who
fled when military police came to deliver his draft papers on March 31,
1999, a few days after NATO started bombing Serbia.
     "I knew the risks. Milosevic had declared a state of war and the
borders were closed," said the tall, dark-haired man, who asked that his
last name be withheld to protect his family. "But I didn't agree with his
senseless policies. I had always opposed him. I wasn't going to serve in
his war."
     Goran said he grabbed a change of clothes, a piece of bread, his
passport and some meager savings and took off through roads, fields and
woods across what refugees call the "green border" into Hungary.
     "I felt so optimistic. I thought my worries were behind me" when he
crossed the border, Goran said. But he was soon picked up by Hungarian
border police and sent to two refugee camps before ending up at Debrecen.
There, he was told his application for asylum had been denied for lack of
evidence.
     Today, he feels utterly abandoned. "I know I did the right thing by
refusing to fight in the war. I don't regret it, but it costs me so much. I
have no job. I miss my friends and family. I am afraid," he said.
     Hunched on his bed, slowly sipping tea from an old yogurt pot, he
continued: "In the eyes of my people, I am a traitor and a lot would never
forgive me. . . . If I go home, I'll go to jail. But it seems that
everybody expects us to be sent back and doesn't care."
     His main hope is to emigrate to the United States, where an uncle in
Texas is willing to sponsor him, but he says that so far the U.S. Embassy
has been of little help.
     The Yugoslav Lawyers Committee for Human Rights says men like Goran
have good reason to fear returning to Yugoslavia. Special laws imposed
during the Kosovo campaign provide for jail sentences of up to 10 years for
draft dodging, and up to 20 years for leaving the country to avoid a
recruitment call-up.
     Amnesty International has determined that at least several hundred
draft evaders are already imprisoned in Yugoslavia, most of them serving
five-year sentences, and as many as 23,000 more cases are before the
military courts.
     Even without the threat of imprisonment, return would be difficult for
many. "My grandfather told me, 'If you come back, I'll kill you, and if I
don't, someone else will,' " said Sinisa Prole, 26.
     He and eight friends who used to plan anti-Milosevic demonstrations
and write political pamphlets at a cafe they called the "Bastion of
Freedom" live together in a cramped two-room apartment on a busy boulevard
in Budapest.
     All are now despised in the small mining town 35 miles north of
Belgrade where they once lived.
     Both UNHCR and the Council of Europe have said that "refusal to take
part in a war condemned by the international community because of serious
violations of international humanitarian law should be considered grounds
for granting asylum."
     Yet no European country including Hungary has been willing to grant
refugee status to the Yugoslav draft dodgers.
     Under pressure from UNHCR, Hungary has given one-year renewable
permits to some 1,200 draft evaders and other asylum seekers. The U.N.
refugee agency is now lobbying to win them the right to work and go to school.
     Other draft evaders are in Hungary on tourist visas while they await a
decision on their status or are in the country illegally. Hungary so far
has not deported anyone and is unlikely to do so "at this stage," Mr.
Pasquali said.
     "We're not asking for special favors. We have skills; we'll work,"
said Snezana Bozickovic, 30, who fled with her husband and son. She said
her family is prepared to go to any Western country where people can speak
English.
     Not all draft evaders, however, want a new life abroad. Sveta Matic,
26, an active member of the student opposition in Belgrade who was arrested
many times, dreams only of going home.
     "I want to go back to Serbia. I don't care if we don't have
electricity, if I have to wait until I am 40, if I [go back as] a simple
worker. I want to be part of building a new democratic Serbia," he said.

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