In 1995 #Oluja I reported from #Bosnia on #Serb refugees fleeing #Croatia. Guy 25-ish driving a tractor loaded with women & children shouts “Hey, jounalist, remember me?” I didn’t. “In July 91 [after Struga massacre] you told my commander ‘your parastate [ #Krajina] can’t exist 2/

/2 you should find a way to revoncile with #Croatia, it is your country. They kept telling us we’ll never lose but as time went on I increasingly thought about your words. I sensed uou were right & we were going for our own destruction”. I had nothing to tell him then & there /3

3/ Every refugee said “our own army ordered us to head away from jome”. It was a cynical calculation by Serb leadership (I cannot claim whether Croatian Serbs decided on their own or if Milisevic & the Karadzic lot from Bosnia influenced it). But refugee columns were set in 4/

4/ motion by Martić et al. In Western Serbia locals were hostile, most selling bottled water & food at shameful prices. One granny of 85 lamented it took her 9 days on tractor to reach Serbia. With no news of her son, a soldier. “He waited for me [inside Serbia], he got there 5/

/5 in 3 days, he was in Army column & they had trucks & fuel & retreated first, with priority on roads. I shouldn’t have worried. Milišević cynically kept them out of sight & media. He hoarded off 0000s to #Kosovo though most left ASAP. Being cannon fodder 1x is enough /6

6/ Croatian Serbs in general, especially those living in rebel held areas were everybody’s bargaining chips, their own side included. They were aroused, armed, set against their neighbours & jomeland & then abandoned. To me #Serbia is more responsible for their fate than #Croatia

@threadreaderapp please unroll