British troops on alert

Refugee Agency Warns of Peace Breaking Down in Bosnia

The UNHCR said that there could be no lasting peace and stability unless refugees could go back to their homes in areas of Bosnia where they are a minority.

In recent days, Muslim refugees who tried to return to three villages near the Croat-dominated town of Jajce in Bosnia have been forced to flee after a large crowd of Croats appeared and tormented them.

Growing tension in Bosnia

International police and British soldiers with the NATO-led Stabilisation Force (SFOR) were powerless to prevent their departure. In a separate incident, a man was burnt to death in a house near Jajce.

Muslims from the three villages - Ledici, Bvici and Kruscica - had begun to trickle back to their homes during the past week, but intimidation from local Croat crowds forced them all to leave by Sunday night.

In the largest of the three communities, Kruscica, more than 80 men, some of them with their families, stuck it out until late in the afternoon. Some had made discreet earlier visits, but most had not seen their homes since they left the village under Serb persecution in 1992. Every house has been destroyed.

The returning refugees had brought spades and shovels with them to begin the mammoth labour of rebuilding their village.

British troops powerless to intervene

Their leader, Emusic Husein, said he had no quarrel with the Croats. He said he hoped that Croat refugees would be able to return to their communities too.

Then crowds of Croat youths appeared at every entrance to the village, swelled in the late afternoon by women and children who jeered at the Muslims, who eventually went back down the mountain in a convoy of cars and some buses to return to their forced exile.

A substantial British military presence ensured a sort of order, but foreign troops have no mandate for maintaining civilian law and order and once it became clear that the local Croat-dominated police were not going to be able to keep the peace, all the British soldiers could do was to guarantee the safety of the Muslims as they left.

The incident clearly shows the limitations of the Dayton peace agreement in its stated aim of returning Bosnia to a multi-ethnic society. European Union countries have begun officially suspending diplomatic contacts with Bosnia over the country's failure to comply with provisions of the Dayton peace accords.

July 30: Cook's Tough Message for Croatia

Related sites
The Dayton Agreement
External sites are not endorsed by the BBC