Скачать или смотреть BOSNIA: SARAJEVO: REFUGEES TURN CAPITAL INTO GIANT RURAL VILLAGE

(23 Jun 1996) Eng/Serbo-Croat/Nat

Opposition parties in Bosnia are accusing the government of flooding the capital, Sarajevo, with thousands of refugees for their own political gain in forthcoming elections.

They say Sarajevo, before the war a cosmopolitan modern city, is being turned into a giant rural village with peasants grazing their sheep on grass verges.

After nearly four years of war, Sarajevo is a city of peace.

But official statistics show only ten percent of the people living in the city today were here before the war.

Much of the population fled to escape the bitter siege. Thousands were killed.

Today, peasants from refugee camps around Bosnia make up a large part of the population.

An unlikely sight for a cosmopolitan university city - peasants seize any available grass to feed their livestock.

Apartments, abandoned by families fleeing the city, are now home to these countryfolk.

With little money, they sell what little possessions they have.

Zlatko Lagumdzija was born in Sarajevo and stayed through the war. He lectures in economics at Sarajevo's University and is also leader of one opposition party.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
If you came from the middle of nowhere during this war the question is are you trying to make your middle of nowhere here in Sarajevo or are you trying to become Sarajevan.
SUPERCAPTION: Zlatko Lagumdzija, opposition leader and lecturer

Original Sarajevo citizens are alarmed about their city being turned into a large rural village.

People like 73-year-old Emina Kadric and her friend 68-year-old Nerma Suljic were born
in Sarajevo and survived the city's siege. They notice the difference every day.

SOUNDBITE: (Serbo Croat)
I've nothing against them, they're clean and tidy, but they're still from another world. I think Foca (where refugees she knows have come from) is a town not a city - I think their place is there and our place is here in the city'
SUPERCAPTION: Emina Kadric, resident

SOUNDBITE: (Serbo Croat)
The structure has changed drastically during the last couple of war years. You notice it and you can feel it in every step. The whole lifestyle on the street, in the buildings and shops, you can feel it everywhere. And you can see that this wave of people has been significant.
SUPERCAPTION: Nerma Suljic, resident

Lagumdzija is blaming the government for exploiting the poor for their own gains.

SOUNDBITE: (Eng)
There is a certain policy from the ruling people who want to use the refugees for their very very narrow and unfair political goals.
SUPERCAPTION: Leader of opposition party, Zlatko Lagumdzija

But Dzevad Pusic, a 25-year-old refugee from Zepa, thinks the accusations are unfair.

He's tried to settle elsewhere.

SOUNDBITE: (Serbo-Croat)
It's very difficult to answer the question of where I am, because I don't know where I am. I've tried many places: Kakanj, Visoko, Sarajevo - and I don't have anything
yet - everything is temporary. I live in uncertainty - I don't know if I'll be able to go home one day or not
SUPERCAPTION: Dzevad Pusic, refugee

Dzevad can't go home. As a result of the Dayton peace agreement, his town is now under the control of Bosnian Serbs. As are many other towns and villages.

Others were completely destroyed and will take months if not years to repair before their former inhabitants can return.

After having survived four years of fighting and hardship, it is understandable Sarajevans are desperate to return to normality.

But for these country folk, who have lost their homes, life may never be the same again.

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