Word: doboj
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1993-1993
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...fighters call this the "bicycle path," a narrow strip of bitterly contested ground cutting for nearly 150 miles through north central Bosnia to connect the Serb stronghold of Doboj to Serbia proper. Muslim and Croat lines ) pinch the corridor on both its eastern and western flanks. Daily shelling empties the town much of the day; by early afternoon the only sound on the main boulevard is the flapping of plastic sheets that cover shop windows shattered by artillery rounds. But when dusk closes in, fighters and young girls venture out to meet at a small park, whispering beneath the pine...
...Doboj falls, the corridor will fall too. This is the most critical part of the line," says the local Serb commander. "We will never give it up." Under the Vance-Owen peace plan, Doboj (pronounced dough boy) would be handed back to the Muslims, an event that the Serbs insist will never happen. "This is our last stand," says a Serb who came here a year ago as a refugee from a Muslim town in southern Bosnia. "To take away the corridor is to kill us as a people. We would rather die fighting here...
...places like the slit trenches around Doboj that the success of any peace effort will be determined. Officers and men alike declare they would consider any concessions a betrayal. They will fight to the last man rather than give up one foot of the ground they have won. In an eerie way, the Serbs in Doboj are not unlike the Branch Davidians in Waco, devotees of a cult of victimization: isolated from the outside world, hunkered down against forces that want to remove them, certain of their beliefs. Like the Branch Davidians, they are ready for Armageddon if it comes...
...trenches around Doboj are filled with green muck and spent cartridges. Last week a brief calm descended on this small stretch of front line for the first time in more than a year. The Serbs basked in the warm spring sun, talked and played countless rounds of a card game called tablici. At this moment, life is only intermittently dangerous. "We have the basics here," says a borac, Serbian for fighter. "We have food, cigarettes, a little money and our tank. It is enough. We can fight alone if we have to. We are not afraid...