MILOSEVIC FUELS HIS SECRET WAR ACROSS THE DRINA

Evidence mounts of Belgrade's role in supplying Mladic's war machine

by Robert Block

(The Indipendent, 26 july 1995)

The dirt trail runs parallel to the Drina river for miles before it veers through trees and thickets to the bank. A few yards below, the Drina flows by peacefully. Across the river the hills of Bosnia, dotted with clusters of houses, rise above the treeline.

What is significant about this spot, however, is not the view, but the smell. The stench of petrol covers the area like a fuel soaked blanket. The ground is saturated and the fumes burn the nostrils.

"This is one of the main smugglers' trails in the area," said my guide, himself a small time smuggler of contraband to Bosnia. "Every night Serbian police secure this area and about five tanker lorries full of benzine are emptied. They stretch a big hose across the river to tankers on the other side. The benzine is pumped from this side to that side."

For months there have been reports of "pipes under the Drina" through which Serbia has allegedly been clandestinely feeding its clients in Bosnia with petrol to keep their tanks rolling.

A team of UN monitors has tried to investigate the rumours but failed to uncover proof. As far as the monitors are concerned, Belgrade is honouring its pledge to keep its borders with Bosnia closed to all but "humanitarian aid".

But the smell of petrol and the large tyre tracks in the oily mud alongside the river near Loznica suggest all is not as the monitors and Belgrade say. In addition to reports of petrol crossing the Drina there are signs that munitions and soldiers from Serbia are making the journey to prop up the Bosnian Serb war effort. President Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia appears to be coming to the aid of the Bosnian Serbs once again, if he ever stopped.

Vast supplies of petrol from secret crossing points like the one near Loznica would have been crucial for the Bosnian Serbs' onslaught against Srebrenica, Zepa and now Bihac. Without fuel, the Bosnian Serb war machine would have ground to a halt.

Yet, the Bosnian Serbs are militarily more active now than at anytime in the past year since Mr Milosevic first imposed the fuel and military blockade as punishment for the Bosnian Serbs' rejection of a peace plan. In return, the international com- munity rewarded him by easing sanctions against Belgrade.

But with the exception of a short period at the start of the blockade, petrol prices in Serb-held parts of Bosnia have remained stable, indicating a steady supply.

The Belgrade daily Nasa Borba on Monday carried a letter from an opposition MP to the Serbian Interior Minister, Zoran Sokolovic, complaining about the interior ministry police at the bordercrossing at Mali Zvornik, up river from Loznica.

"Some police are actively involved in smuggling large quantities of petrol, engine oils, liquor and other goods. Some policemen are taking bribes in foreign currency," the letter said.

While it cannot be ruled out that the police, seen as Mr Milosevic's praetorian guard, are acting on their own accord for personal enrichment, other developments suggest that the petrol smuggling is only part of a wider operation that enjoys Mr Milosevic's blessing.

In the Serbian village of Uzovnica, residents say that shortly after the fall of Srebrenica, in the small hours of the morning, around 16 July, a military engineering unit of the rump Yugoslav army threw up a "pontoon" bridge across the Drina. Eight busloads of soldiers then crossed into Bosnia and the bridge was dismantled before daylight. The soldiers were believed to be from the 73rd brigade based at Pancevo near Belgrade. "Volunteers" from Pancevo have been spotted at Bratunac, near Srebrenica.

Reports of Serb army units operating on the other side of the Drina were further confirmed on 20 July when a Belgradebased Serb journalist returning from the Bosnian Serb political headquarters in Pale saw a convoy of covered military vehicles heading north-west into Bosnia. Some of the trucks had Yugoslav army registration plates.

Other journalists have reported seeing munitions in Bosnia marked PPU 1995. PPU stands for Prvi Partizan Uzice, which is the Yugoslav army's main munitions manufacturer, based in central Serbia.

The increase in reports of cross-border co-operation suggests that Mr Milosevic has reversed his much taunted policy of isolating the Bosnian Serbs.

Sources quoted by the independent Belgrade newsletter VIP said Mr Milosevic gave the green light to the Bosnian Serb military commander, Ratko Mladic, to attack Srebrenica and Zepa, as well as the northwestern Bosnian city of Bihac.

"His main idea, the sources say, is to make it clear to the international community that failure to lift [fully] the sanctions imposed on Yugoslavia would result in an escalation of the Bosnian war. Milosevic also expects a better military situation on the ground to improve his negotiating position," VIP said.