The rest are still missing

TWENTY more refugees arrive in Travnik at night. All are tired and dazed. One man talks a little before he sleeps.

He says he was a carpenter in Vecici before the village fell to the Serbs at the end of October. After two weeks of bombardment and shooting, the Chetniks, as Serbian irregulars are called, gave notice to Muslims that they had to leave. If not, they would be killed or put into prison camps. About 620 people marched from the city. So far, he says, he has heard of only about 100 people who are accounted for. The rest are still missing.

The man is 50 years old. He says they were rounded up by the Chetniks. During his capture, he watched the Chetniks kill his two sons and his brother. He was tortured, as scars on his face attest, but not as badly as some of the others, he says.

In this group of new arrivals, most are old men and young boys, with a few women and children. He has heard there will be a convoy of women and children arriving from the territory around his village, which is now controlled by the Serbs. He says he hopes that his wife and daughter and two grandchildren are on the convoy. He has heard no news of them since his village fell.

The boys who came in with his group are all 14 or 15. Their faces also show signs of beatings - broken lips, and black eyes. None of them know the whereabouts of their families. They are all tired and want to sleep. They have just walked 14 miles after weeks of beatings and little food.

The next morning the boys moved to another refugee camp, and the men stayed in Travnik. The convoy of women and children never arrived.

In the market, another man carrying a loaf of bread asked people if they had any news of his village or his wife and children. No one had any information.