"What goes around, comes around"!

To: newsonline@bbc.co.uk 
Date: Sat, 21 Jun 2003 20:28:30 -0700
Subject: Uncertain future for Croatian Serbs

Dear Editor:

The article about the Croatian Serb refugees in Serbia was quite
interesting but is in need of some clarifications.

First, calling the Croatian Krajina region the "Krajina Serb Republic" is
a misnomer. The rebel Croatian Serbs gave it this name, but no country in
the world (except Serbia) recognized it as a legitimate entity. 
Of the 11 1/2 % Serb population in pre-war Croatia, including the Serb
army personnel and families, only some 4% lived in the so-called Krajina
where they constituted a majority in some villages. These Serbs'
ancestors fled the Ottoman Turk conquest several centuries ago and
settled in Croatia's Krajina, which was at the time part of the
Austro-Hungarian Empire. Krajina simply means "borderland" as it was the
border between the West and the Ottoman Turk Empire. 

Further, the article states that some Serb refugees do not want to return
to Croatia "because of what they have suffered during the war". The more
likely reason for not wanting to return is remembering the suffering they
caused from 1991 - 1995 to their Croatian neighbors, with atrocities, the
killings of thousands, the ethnic cleansing of several hundred thousand
and the looting and burning of their homes. Since the area's liberation,
the returning impoverished Croatian refugees have no other place to
settle than in the existing Serbian homes. It is the classic: "What goes
around, comes around"!

Sincerely,

Hilda M. Foley
National Federation of Croatian Americans
13272 Orange Knoll
Santa Ana. CA 92705
714 832-0289