UN, RED CROSS HAVE NO IDEA THAT ANYTHING UNUSUAL HAPPENED IN BAPSKA, ILOK MAYOR SAYS

BAPSKA, ILOK MAYOR SAYS ZAGREB, May 20 (Hina) - The exiled Mayor of Ilok, Stjepan Kraljevic, yesterday said that the remaining 134 Croats from the occupied village of Bapska (eastern Slavonia) had been expelled to Sid (town in Vojvodina, on the Croatian border). UN agencies and the International Red Cross did not have any reports of the expulsion of the inhabitants of Bapska. "They don't have the least idea that anything out of the ordinary happened there," Kraljevic said, speaking in a Croatian TV news show. He stressed that most of the expellees were sick and elderly people. According to Kraljevic, the residents of Ilok, Sarengrad and Bapska were completely at the mercy of Serb occupying authorities. No contact with them had been possible for several months, because Serb authorities had disconnected their phones. According to Kraljevic, there still were 500 Croats in Ilok and 70 in Sarengrad. According to the 1991 census, the 6,775-strong population of Ilok included 4,248 Croats and 484 Serbs. Bapska had 1,624 inhabitants, of whom 1,478 were Croats and only 33 were Serbs. Sarengrad had a populatino of 1,005 - 904 Croats and 48 Serbs. In early October 1991, the JNA (Yugoslav People's Army) threatened to raze the town of Ilok to the ground if it did not surrender. Local authorities asked the citizens whether they should resist further or surrender and evacuatre. According to the testimonies collected in the book "Mass Killing and Genocide in Croatia" (published in 1992 by Hrvatska Sveucilisna Naklada), 73 % of the town's population were against the surrendering of weapons, but 76 % were also for evacuation if it was decided to surrender. However, after the EEC monitors persuaded the town atuhorities that the JNA would really execute its threat, the town was evacuated. "On October 17, 1991, early in the morning, the exodus began. About 15,000 inhabitants of Ilok and the surrounding villages, including Bapska and Sarengrad" started to gather. The formation of the convoy lasted the whole day. (...) The convoy was 15 km long, consisting of private cars, trucks, tractors and motorbicycles," a testimony reads. "After the occupation, many Serbs simply arrived in Ilok and settled in the houses of Croats. At the beginning, such Serbs were mostly the members of "SAO Krajina" police. They put announcements on the private residences of expelled Croats "This house is confiscated by gthe police" and afterwards Serbs settled in," another testimony says. (hina) jn as 201317 MET may 95