Serbs Driving Muslims From Northern Bosnia

TUZLA, Bosnia-Herzegovina —  Bosnian Serbs herded hundreds more Muslims across the front lines Monday, and U.N. officials said few non-Serbs were left in Serb-held areas in the northeast.

Two people were killed during the transfer and many others required urgent medical treatment when they arrived, according to Red Cross officials at the crossing point. One man died when he stepped on a mine while crossing into government territory, officials of Bosnia’s Muslim-dominated government and refugees said.

The exodus from the towns of Bijeljina and Janja showed the determination of ethnic Serb nationalists to force out the last few thousand non-Serbs who have endured more than two years of harassment and deprivation.

“If they haven’t completely removed all the non-Serbs, they have certainly got their numbers down to next to nothing,” said Ron Redmond, a spokesman for the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in Geneva.

About 30,000 Slavic Muslims lived in the Bijeljina region before ethnic Serbs went to war in April, 1992, following a vote by majority Muslims and Croats for Bosnia to secede from Serb-dominated Yugoslavia.

At least 3,800 people were sent over the front line to government territory Sunday and Monday. And 1,000 more are expected soon, Red Cross spokesman Lisa Jones said.

She said the latest refugees, like previous groups forced out since mid-July, had to pay the Serbs a transportation fee for being driven to the front and were robbed of their money and other valuables.

The expulsions have come as Bosnian Serbs defy pressure from the international community and their former patrons in Yugoslavia to accept a peace plan that would leave them in control of 49% of Bosnia. They currently hold 70%.

Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital, was quieter Monday after the heaviest fighting in months flared late Sunday. Two people were killed and 18 wounded.