The refugee column - 200,000 people on tractors: The largest exodus in Europe after WWII

The refugee column from the Krajina in August 1995 was the largest refugee wave in Europe after the Second World War - 200,000+ people expelled in 72 hours.

The beginning of the exodus - 4-5 August

The decision to flee

Why did they flee?

• Artillery fire on the towns (Knin, Benkovac, Obrovac...)
• Fear of a massacre - memory of Jasenovac (NDH 1941-1945)
• The RSK authorities - called for an evacuation (or ordered it?)
• The SVK (army) - withdrawing, unable to defend
• No guarantees - the Croatian Army did not guarantee safety

• Partly spontaneous - panic due to the shelling
• Partly organised - the RSK authorities ordered the evacuation of military families
• The result: A massive, chaotic flight

The first columns - 4 August afternoon

Knin:

• Already in the afternoon of 4 August, columns began to leave the city
• Tractors, trailers, buses, cars
• People packed what they could - beds, wardrobes, livestock

The main escape routes

Direction: Bosnia (Banja Luka)

The main road:

• Knin → Srb → Bihać → Banja Luka
• Distance: ~250 km
• Travel time: 2-5 days (depending on transport)

• Benkovac → Bosnia
• Obrovac → Bosnia
• Gračac → Bosnia

The columns - dimensions

Estimate by UN observers:

• Length of the column: 50-100 km
• Number of vehicles: 20,000-30,000 (tractors, cars, buses, trucks)
• Number of people: 200,000-250,000
• Speed of movement: 5-10 km/h (congestion, bad roads)

• Tractors with trailers - most common (farmers)
• Cars - overcrowded (8-10 people in a car)
• Buses - some organised, some private
• Trucks - with families and belongings
• On foot - those who had no transport
• Livestock - cows, sheep, goats (driven along beside the tractors)

Conditions on the road - a humanitarian catastrophe

Lack of basic necessities

Water:

• Enormous crowds - thousands of people waiting at a tap
• Many drank unclean water - fell ill

• Many brought food for a day or two
• After that - hunger
• No shops - everything closed or looted

• Non-existent
• People in the forests, along the road
• A hygiene catastrophe

• Minimal
• The old, the sick - died on the road
• Babies born on the tractors, on the road

Death on the road

Estimate:

• 50-100 people died during the flight
• Mostly old people (heart attacks, exhaustion)
• Some minors (dehydration, illness)

The UN present - but passive

UNPROFOR observers

UN mandate:

• Protection of the civilian population in the "UN Protected Areas"
• 15,000 soldiers

• They WATCHED the columns
• They recorded the events
• They provided some humanitarian aid (water, food - but minimal)
• They DID NOT STOP the attack
• They DID NOT PROTECT the civilians

• The mandate did not permit offensive action
• Political will - the West supported Croatia
• Fears of a conflict

Human Rights Watch: "The UN had a mandate to protect the civilians. Instead, they watched the largest ethnic cleansing in Europe after WWII and did nothing. This is a systemic failure."

Arrival in Bosnia - Banja Luka

Reception in Banja Luka

August 1995:

• 200,000+ refugees arrived in the Republika Srpska (Bosnia)
• Banja Luka - the capital of the RS - received the majority

• Capacity: Banja Luka could not receive 200,000 people
• Accommodation: Schools, sports halls, temporary camps
• Food: Insecure
• Healthcare: Overwhelmed

• UNHCR (the UN for refugees)
• The Red Cross
• International NGOs
• Provided aid - but insufficient

Further displacement

Some remained in Bosnia:

• ~50,000 remained in the Republika Srpska permanently

• Serbia: ~120,000 refugees from the Krajina
• Third countries: ~30,000 (Australia, Canada, the US, Germany)

Psychological impact - trauma

PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder)

Studies:

• 50-60% of the refugees from the Krajina have symptoms of PTSD
• Depression, anxiety, nightmares
• Especially old people - died of a "broken heart"

• "Who am I now? I am no longer from the Krajina, but I am not quite a Serb from Serbia either."
• A sense of not belonging
• The children of the refugees - a "lost generation"

Testimony - Stana Knežević (58 years old, from Benkovac):

"For 30 years I have been living in Belgrade. But I am not from here. Every time someone asks 'where are you from?', I say 'from Benkovac'. But Benkovac is no longer mine. We are not there. My house was burned down. My children grew up here, they do not know Benkovac. I am a refugee. And I will be a refugee until I die."

Statistics of the exodus

Total expelled/fled:

• 200,000-250,000 Serbs from the Krajina
• That is ~80% of the Serb population of the Krajina

• 4-7 August (72 hours): ~150,000 fled
• August-September: another 50,000-100,000 expelled/fled

• Srebrenica 1995: 40,000 refugees
• Kosovo 1999: 500,000 Albanians (but over a longer period)
• Storm 1995: 200,000+ in 72 hours - THE LARGEST WAVE

"The refugee column from the Krajina was ethnic cleansing in real time. The whole world watched - satellite images, UN reports, TV cameras. And no one stopped it. This is a disgrace to the international community." - Amnesty International, 2005.