Soldiers with guns, walking along roads

Schwartz:  These NATO peacekeepers have one of the toughest jobs in the country.  Once a predominantly Muslim area, Brcko was seized by Serb forces after some of the war's heaviest fighting.

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Today ultimate control of Brcko remains unresolved.  An issue too intractable for even Dayton negotiators to handle.  An arbitration panel is due to report by the end of the year - and in the meantime the power struggle continues.

Pan from soldiers on tank to Schwartz walking and talking to camera

Super:

Dominique

Schwartz:  This is the frontline in the battle for Brcko - the zone of separation - a narrow buffer dividing the municipality in two.  With the Muslim and Croats to the south, the Serbs to the north. 

Schwartz

This is the no mans land that every fighting man wants.  As a result, each house, each person here is of strategic importance as both sides stake their claims to one of the most hotly contested pieces of land in the whole of Bosnia.

Map of Bosnia

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Schwartz:  Brcko is a tiny piece of territory of great national significance.

For the Serbs it's the lifeline uniting the two main areas of Republika Srpska.  For the Muslim-Croat Federation, it's the gateway to Croatia and Europe.

Today, under Dayton, Brcko is divided by a 4 kilometre wide zone of separation, with the Serbs controlling the city, and the Federation, the outer villages.

Tanks, soldiers

Keeping the peace in the middle of the zone, are the Black knights.  American soldiers who're part of NATO's 60,000 strong Bosnian peacekeeping force, known as IFOR.

Their mission - to keep the lid on violence in Brcko's disputed Posavina corridor.  And to create a climate for free and fair elections

Interview with Lieutenant Colonel Tony Cuculo, Cuculo speaking on phone, intv

Cuculo:  Brcko is certainly a flashpoint.  A potential flashpoint.  One might argue that um, as Brcko goes, so goes Bosnia.

continues

Schwartz:  Lieutenant Colonel Tony Cuculo is the commanding officer at Camp McGovern.  A man who relishes challenge, he also appreciates the very real threat of renewed fighting.

Cuculo:  Local people tell me, at least Bosniaks in the south say if we do not get Brcko we'll fight for it.  The local Serbs tell me, if we lose Brcko, we'll fight for it - a new war.

Tanks through village

Schwartz:  If the war were to re-ignite, there's a good chance this is where the first sparks would fly - observation post 9.

Soldier pointing and explaining to camera

Soldier:  About two hundred metres up the road from the last blue barrel up there is the northern zone separation marker, you can't see the marker but if you look past me, past the destroyed houses you'll start seeing a line of houses that have brand new roofs on them, or roofs on them under construction ....

Soldier watching city

Schwartz:  From their vantage point in the Zone of Separation, the soldiers of OP9 have already spotted a built up in ground forces but not the kind you'd first imagine.

Cement mixer, building of houses

With military offensives off the agenda since last year's ceasefire, the Serbs are mounting a different attack.  Just a few hundred metres from the checkpoint, a housing boom is underway.  The aim - to pack as many Serbs as possible into the old Muslim neighbourhoods lining the Zone of Separation.

Schwartz entering house with Huso Bahor, he shows her around

Despite the visible American presence, many residents on the Federation side of the zone are still too scared to return home.  One of the few who has made the move is Huso Bahor.

Huso Bahor:  This is the entrance to the house.  Watch your head.

Schwartz:  Huso says he would never have come home, were it not for the security provided by the troops just up the road.

Huso Bahor:  This was the living room and over there,  my daughter's bedroom.

Schwartz:  Even so, he's been harassed and victimised.  The partly rebuilt homes of his Croat and Muslim neighbours, ripped apart by explosives in the middle of the night.

Schwartz with Bahor and wife, intv with Huso

Schwartz:  So that house has been destroyed twice, rebuilt twice.

Bahor

Schwartz:  He has no doubts Serb nationalists were responsible.

Huso Bahor:  As you can see for yourselves another sort of genocide is occuring.  Now the Serbs are destroying the houses they don't want and rebuilding those that they do. 

Schwartz:  I can see the American flag over there, if IFOR left would you be staying here?

Huso Bahor:  I'll tell you now, there'd be war immediately.  The war will break out again because they won't let us go back to our homes.   Until people all return to their own homes - there will never be peace.

Cafe, people on

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streets

Central Brcko seems deceptively normal.  People on the streets.  People in the cafes.  The only thing is, these are not the same people as before the war.

Pan from boy on shoulder to Schwartz walking on street speaking to camera

Before Serb forces overran Brcko, every second person you passed in the street was likely to be a Muslim.  Today you'd be hard pressed to find even one.  Ethnic cleansing has removed any trace of the city's former inhabitants. 

All the Mosques have been demolished, the signs have been re-written in the Serbian script, Cyrillic - even the street names have been changed.  It's almost as if the city's 25,000 Muslim inhabitants never even existed.

Train carriages,

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damaged buildings

Schwartz:  In May and June of 1992, thousands of Muslims and Croats were reportedly rounded up and exterminated.  Some of them here, in the now derelict warehouses lining the harbour.

Their bodies were allegedly dumped in the river, buried in mass graves, or according to some accounts, minced at a nearby factory.

Men with posters, Schwartz walking into house with Kuzman Vukasim

In the lead up to the elections, Brcko's population has risen dramatically.  Nearly all Serb of course.  Today 30,000 Serbs live in town - two thirds of whom are displaced from Sarajevo and other Bosnian cities.  They are the people who'll decide Brcko's political future at the polls.

Kuzman Vukasim was a Serb officer who participated in the siege of Sarajevo.  After taking nine bullets in the face and chest, he's lucky to be alive.

Today he lives with his family in Brcko in what was once a Muslim home.  In a city where property is a political weapon, his children's favourite board game is somewhat ironic.

Schwartz with Vukasim in blue room

Kuzman Vukasim:  Now I'm living with my family in Brcko.

Schwartz:  What's this up here?

Kuzman Vukasim:  That is a commendation from the corps of the army of the Republic of Srpska for a successful action on Sarajevo.

Parcel, Vukasim showing medal to Schwartz, interview with Vukasim

Schwartz:  Like so many others this veteran has lost countless friends and family - including his brother who was awarded this medal after dying in action along side of him.  Now, he says, there can be no turning back.

Kuzman Vukasim:  We cannot live together.  Enough blood was shed in these last four years.  We gave enough of our youth.  I think we would live better if we separated like brothers - who separate.  The only way for there to be peace - is for borders to be established - then we'll be good neighbours and we won't go to war.

Helicopter, soldiers

Schwartz:  And therein lies the problem for the international community.  It has set in motion a whole peace process whose underlying assumption is that Bosnians want to live together.  In Brcko many don't.

People sitting around table

Mayor Nunib Jusufovic through interpreter:  The problems are similar or the same, mine and my colleagues, but we have some different views on our problems ...

Schwartz:  Addressing UN officials and European ambassadors at Camp McGovern, the two rival mayors of Brcko make their pitch.  The bottom line - both sides want the town and neither side is prepared to compromise.

Jusufovic speaking to group

Super:

MUNIB JUSUFOVIC

Brcko Muslim

Mayor Nunib Jusufovic through interpreter:  It means either life or death of both sides.  For the Federation it means the only way to the international borders.

Mayor (in exile)

Delegate:  Now my question to you - if you were the arbitrator what would you propose in order to allow both entities free passage?

Pajic speaking at the table

Super:

MIODRAG PAJIC

Brcko Serb Mayor

Miodrage Pajic thorugh interpreter:  I think the most real thing - as the final arbiter - arbitrator - I would have the current situation as the lasting one.

Helicopter, trucks passing damaged building, soldier speaking to Schwartz

American man:  I'd ask that I not be asked to make any comments and I'll just take you in there and escort you around.

demolished houses

Schwartz:  The apparent lengths to which some Serbs will go to maintain control of Brcko was brought home with devastating effect while we were in the area.

Three Muslim families who dared to rebuild within the zone of separation had their houses bombed in an overnight attack.

Schwartz sitting in rubble, speaking to camera

Well, this is the reality of peace in Brcko.  If you're Muslim and brave enough you can return home to rebuild your house.  But there's no guarantee if will still be standing in the morning. 

Camp McGovern is only one kilometre away.  Yet not even the might of the American military could prevent an attack such as this. 

It's no wonder then, that it's hard to find anyone around here who believes the Bosnian elections will help to unify the country, in fact many believe the opposite, that the polls will serve only to entrench the bitter divisions here.

Interview with Ry Ryan

Ry Ryan:  I don't think it will help dissolve them - it may set in place, may cast in concrete the nationalist parties controlling the situation on the various sides.

Tank on street, interview with Ryan continues

Schwartz:  According to UN official Ry Ryan, the key to peace in Brcko is not the elections, but a strong international presence.

Ry Ryan:  There should be some sort of internationalisation of the city for an indefinite period, speaking of years conceivable as long as a generation. 

Maybe as short as five years or ten years but there needs to be some kind of serious military force in the region and there is one right now, you've seen it.  A force like that if not exactly the same force needs to stay in place to keep everybody cool.

Demolished

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buildings

people, American flag flying, zoom in

Schwartz:  Of far greater significance here than the elections, is the umpire's decision on who will ultimately control Brcko.  That's due in December - the same time as the Americans are slated to go home.

No matter which way the hammer falls, the prospect of war is high.  For people such as Huso Bahor, who've chosen to rebuild their lives on the front-line, the future is as uncertain as ever.

When the stars and stripes are finally lowered here, the whole of Bosnia may well be holding its breath.