March for peace in Bosnia

Story and photo by Michael Karadjis

SYDNEY — Chanting "We want peace", "Stop the slaughter" and "Chetniks out" (referring to the Serbian monarcho-fascist militias who are responsible for much of the slaughter in Croatia and Bosnia-Hercegovina), several thousand Bosnian Muslims and Croatians marched through Sydney streets on June 8.

As a result of two months of Serbian aggression against Bosnia-Hercegovina and the previous war against Croatia, there are now 1.5 million refugees, many deliberately driven from their homes by Serbian Chetniks and the Serbian-controlled Yugoslav army.

The Milosevic regime in Serbia is attempting to "purify" ethnically areas of Croatia and Bosnia-Hercegovina that it occupies. As well as driving out non-Serbs, it is also sending in Serbian colonists. While Serbs make up about 30% of the Bosnian population, Serbia has occupied 70% of the territory.

Green Left spoke to Alma Olovcic, the president of the Australian Croatian and Muslim Women's Association of Bosnia, Hercegovina and Sangak. She described the horrible situation in the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, which she called "the world's largest concentration camp". Everyone is living in bomb shelters, disease is spreading rapidly, and the wounded are not being treated. She said historic cities were being completely destroyed.

While denouncing "Serbian expansionism" for the conflict, Olovcic said the Serbian people also "victims of the megalomaniac Milosevic". Some six months ago, 60,000 people, including Muslims, Croats and Serbs, demonstrated in Sarajevo against any attempt to carve up the republic and expressing a desire to continue living together in harmony as they had done for centuries.

From GLW issue 59