(25 Apr 1998) English/Nat
Outraged by a recent Serb attack on a Roman Catholic cardinal, Bosnian Croats burned buildings and stoned and overturned U-N vehicles in a northern Bosnian town on Friday.
An unspecified number of people were reported injured in the riot in Drvar.
The latest outpouring of ethnic hostilities in the troubled town of Drvar left 19 people injured, including four U-N officers and the Serb mayor.
The office of the U-N refugee agency, which is overseeing the return of Serbs to the Croat-dominated town, was among buildings burned to the ground.
Officials said NATO peacekeeping troops had to fire warning shots to break up the riot by 15-hundred Bosnian Croats.
The rampage was triggered by Thursday's attack by Bosnian Serbs on a Roman Catholic cardinal, in Serb-controlled Derventa, 130 kilometres (80 miles) east of Drvar.
Vinko Puljic and hundreds of other Croat Catholics had travelled to Derventa to celebrate Mass in a church where Croats had worshipped before the Bosnian war.
Bosnian Serbs threw stones at their buses, then surrounded the church, trapping the Croats there for hours.
The latest hostilities represent a serious setback in the effort to return refugees to Bosnia who were displaced during the 1992-95 war.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"The current situation in Drvar as it stands right now is relatively stable, certainly it's calmed down since earlier this afternoon. The crowds have dispersed, the crowds that were doing the civil disorder. However, we do have a situation with at least a dozen house fires in Drvar as it stands right now."
SUPER CAPTION: Ian Stock, SFOR Commander
The NATO-led peace force evacuated aid workers and put more troops and helicopters on standby as a precaution against further rioting in the town.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"The IPTF (International Police Task Force) people were escorted from their location. The majority of them came back to our camp facility here and are here right now"
SUPER CAPTION: Ian Stock, SFOR Commander
In the night, international community officials succeeded in reaching an agreement between local Croats and Serbs.
The Croat side was represented by Slobodan Lang, senior advisor to Croatian President Franjo Tudjman.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"The other representatives of the international communities from the local Croatian population from the regions got together and they made an agreement between the UNHCR and IPTF military organisations and so on. And they made how they have to stop the final conflict and they have to search for what went on. The most important thing is that there has been nobody who has lost life, there were not a big number of people damaged and so that we were lucky in that sense to control."
SUPER CAPTION: Slobodan Lang, Special Advisor to Croatian President Tudjman
The international delegation was led by Sir Martin Garrod, who said he was hopeful that a security agreement would be forthcoming.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"We intend to get an agreement signed tonight pointing the way toward security in the near future in Drvar and security of the DPs (displaced persons) and the vital need for a real thorough investigation into the events that have taken place today."
SUPER CAPTION: Sir Martin Garrod, International Community Official
Drvar was almost 100 percent Serb before the war but was taken over by Croat forces in 1995.
It now houses some eight-thousand Croats driven from homes elsewhere in Bosnia by the Serbs.
Croat refugees in Drvar and local hardline leaders have been trying to prevent the Serbs' return, staging incidents and burning houses.
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