op 18 front pages-converted - The Watson Institute for International ...

Moreover, the beneficiary population expanded as, with
each passing month, the impact of the war on local populations
became more negative. As of early 1993, about eighty
percent of the refugees (380,000) and displaced persons
(361,000) in Croatia were provided shelter by host families.
The balance resided in hotels (80,000) and collective centers
(55,000). By April 1993 in Serbia and Montenegro, government
figures placed the numbers of those accommodated by host
families (“...relatives, friends, and anonymous humane
people...”) at 96.9 percent, or 572,000 persons. The remaining
3.1 percent, or 18,000 persons, were housed in collective centers
(“...old school buildings, children’s hostels, barracks, old
hotels, former military barracks, etc....”).
Accommodating the displaced largely with families rather
than in institutions made the newcomers more dependent on
the resources of their host families and more difficult to reach
with generalized assistance programs. As the war took an
increasing toll on the economies of the region, those families
became less able to meet the needs of their guests.
In Serbia, the worsening situation reflected not only the
war but also the imposition of international economic sanctions.
“The general economic collapse and the blockade of
commercial traffic,” explained the foreword to the U.N.’s
Consolidated Appeal for early 1994, “have created a situation
in which those who are not refugees or displaced are often in
as great a need as those internally or externally displaced.”
Included within the target population, along with refugees
and displaced persons, were “other affected persons” and
“social cases,” that is, the most needy among the local resident
population.
During the first six months of 1993, the target population
throughout the former Yugoslavia swelled to 4,259,000, including
837,000 refugees, 1,634,000 displaced persons, and
1,788,000 other affected persons. This was the first time a U.N.
appeal included social cases in Croatia (176,000) as well as in
Serbia and Montenegro (150,000). The figures were conservative.
Other estimates held that 90 percent of the resident
Serbian population, for example, was unable to meet basic
food needs. The situation deteriorated markedly with each
successive visit by the team in March, June, and September 1993.
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