Bukovica engleski.qxd - Fond za humanitarno pravo

Bukovica engleski.qxd 15.3.2003 13:53 Page 18
18
Bukovica
On 8 August, however, the suspended police officers
staged a hunger strike outside the Police Department
and were joined by some Pljevljans. Shortly afterwards,
Dačević appeared and demanded that the suspended
police be reinstated by 5 p.m. and threatened
to come back with armed men unless this was done. 33
When his ultimatum was not met by the deadline he
had set, more and more Radicals began congregating
in Pljevlja. Barricades were soon erected on access
roads and the buildings of the post office, State
Accounting Bureau, the Town Hall, radio station were
blocked off and phone lines cut. One of Dačević’s
men took over the local bakery and ordered the manager
and staff to bake enough bread for 10,000 of his
men. The bakery turned out 2,500 kilos of bread that
night. Dačević’s Radicals, in camouflage fatigues and
armed with automatic and semi-automatic weapons
and hand grenades, kept Pljevlja under blockade for
10 hours. According to eyewitnesses, there were about
800 armed civilians in the town that night and tension
was running very high.
3.2. Explosions
On the night of 26/27 August, a blaze ripped through a
shopping center in which five Muslims and one Albanian
had their stores. The Pljevlja Muslims accused Bosnian
Serb refugees of setting the fire. Dačević had his
own version: ”The Muslims, pardon me, Turks, are
doing it themselves so as to keep the tension as high as
possible.“ 34 Pljevlja was at the time flooded with
refugees from Bosnia, Serbs as well as Muslims, mainly
women, children and elderly men. Local Serbs and
33 ”Grenade Thrown at Store,“ Pobjeda, Podgorica, 9 August 1992.
34 ”Pljevlja on Fire,“ Pobjeda, Podgorica, 28 August 1992.