joy the excellent cuisine—including therndelicious trout from the Pcinja River—rnand to meditate and pray at thernmonastery.rnBut troubles still abound for manyrnFRY citizens, particularly for the pensionersrnwho worked for many years inrnand Rumanians put their losses at four tornfive billion U.S. dollars each, the Ukrainiansrnat two to three billion, and whornknows how much Macedonians havernlost. All of them had received only emptyrnwords and promises.rnSerbs were pleased to hear from Bonnrnmil m-m:’^^rnmR^’mn^rnMilo Djukanovic, prime minister of Montenegro (center)rnthe West. Because of the sanctions, theirrnpensions have been blocked, and becausernof the restrictions on visas, it isrndifficult if not impossible for them torntravel to the country where they workedrn(e.g., France, Germany, Sweden) to collectrntheir money. They were affluentrnbefore 1992, now they depend on whateverrnwelfare is available.rnAs a consequence of the successfulrnfinancial reforms, the shops and supermarketsrnwere full once again. ThernBelgrade cafes and restaurants werernbustling, and tourism was in full swing.rnMost of the gas stations were still closed,rnwith the exception of a few private ones,rnbut hundreds or even thousands of “gasrnsmugglers” were selling from their privaternstocks. The authorities do not interfere,rnbecause these men supply thernfuel that the private transport systemrnneeds. Many of the smugglers were Albanians,rnand Montenegro, the twin republicrnof FRY, is flooded with less expensivernAlbanian fuel. Of course, mostrnAlbanians hate the Serbs, but moneyrnand greed often trump history.rnThe neighboring countries had longrnsince lost faith in America’s and thernE.U.’s promise to compensate them forrnthe huge financial losses caused by sanctionsrnagainst the FRY. During an internationalrnmeeting of journalists in thernFRY last May, the Bulgarians, Greeks,rnthat the Nazi past of Mr. Hans-DietrichrnGenscher, the former foreign ministerrnof the German Republic, had finallyrnbeen publicized. He had never forgottenrnthe important role that the Serbs andrnYugoslavia played in defeating Germanyrnin the two world wars, and many Serbs tornthis day hold him primarily responsiblernfor engineering the Yugoslav tragedy.rnThere was much discussion about thernPope’s planned visit to Belgrade. Mostrnmembers of the orthodox clergy objectedrnto the idea. The Vatican had too vigorouslyrnsupported the secession of Sloveniarnand Croatia; it even beat the E.U. inrnits rush to recognize them. Nor has thernGatholic Church ever apologized to thernSerbs for the role played by manyrnCatholic clergy in the holocaust of Serbsrnfrom 1941 to 1945 in the independentrnstate of Croatia. During that time, somern800,000 Serbs were murdered by thernCroatian fascists and their Muslim alliesrnfrom Bosnia and Herzegovina. ManyrnCatholic clerics collaborated with them.rnMore than 200,000 orthodox Serbs werernforced to convert at gunpoint. Therernwere some Catholic clerics who protectedrnand even risked their lives to save theirrnSerbian brothers, but other Vatican circlesrnhelped the most notorious killers tornescape at the end of the war to SouthrnAmerica, Australia, and the Middle East.rnThis was the well-known “rats channel,”rnor “monastery path.” One of its organizersrnwas a Croatian Catholic cleric,rnKrunoslav Draganovic, the secretary ofrnthe order of St. Jerome’s Brotherhood.rnDozens of other clergymen helped him.rnThe recent book by Simon Wiesenthalrn(justice Not Revenge) recounts this story.rnThe availability of much-neededrnmedical supplies and drugs had not improved.rnBabies and children, the chronicallyrnill and the aged, were still dyingrnfrom lack of treatment. The situation inrnthe Republika Srpska (the Serbian part ofrnBosnia and Herzegovina) and in the Republicrnof Serbian Krajina had reachedrnthe crisis stage. Diabetics were still dyingrnbecause there was no insulin and theyrnhad no money to buy it on the blackrnmarket. The infant mortality rate wasrnstill rising ominously. One of the few internationalrnorganizations trying to helprnwas UNIGEF.rnAmong the main topics of discussionrnin Serbia was the problem of BosnianrnSerbs after the Contract Group Ultimatum.rnWould they accept it? Most peoplernI spoke to said they would not, becausernthe plan did not settle thernconstitutional problems of the three entitiesrnin Bosnia and Herzegovina. Theyrnbelieve it is impossible to have all ofrnthem in a single state or union, especiallyrnafter this horrible civil war in whichrnnobody is completely innocent. But thernmain obstacles to the peace agreementrnwere the maps. Most of the Serbianrnpeople of Bosnia and Herzegovina live inrnits western part, where their capital cityrnBanja Luka is located. Serbs from thernSerbian Republic of Krajina are alsornthere. They are connected with theirrnbrothers in eastern Bosnia and with Serbiarnby a thin corridor whose narrowestrnpart, near Brcko, is only four to five milesrnwide. The Bosnian Serbs and the Serbsrnfrom Krajina opened this corridor inrnheavy fighting in 1992 and 1993. It is vitalrnfor their survival. Yet the ContactrnGroup maps gave Brcko (at the Sava River)rnto the Muslim-Croatian federation,rnthus cutting the vital lifeline and leavingrnwestern Bosnia and Krajina at the mercyrnof, alas, hostile Muslims and Croats! It isrnsaid that this vital corridor would be replacedrnby a viaduct or something likernone under U.N. protection, perhaps evenrnwith Russian soldiers patrolling it. Butrncan the Bosnian Serbs trust the U.N.?rnMany Serbs see this as setting the stagernfor a possible replay of the massacres ofrn1941 to 1945.rnThe official FRY might try to per-rn36/CHRONlCLESrnrnrn