Realizing the senselessness of further fighting, more and more Mladic's soldiers are running away from the front. Lack of man-power is a big problem for the Pale authorities. Knin is in panic as well. Response of volunteers in Serbia is falling. Neither Seselj nor Arkan are capable of gathering more than a few hundreds. Martic demands from Milosevic between 15 and 20 thousands of military recruits, Karadzic significantly more. It is claimed that they were the main stake in freeing of the captured UN peacekeepers. For one peacekeeper, Milosevic promised to Karadzic 10 refugees whom Pale claims as soldiers. Other sources, however, claim that the mass return of Serbs across the Drina river was planned much earlier, as part of the Belgrade's war strategy.
All over Serbia, a great hunt of Serbs on Serbs goes on. Independent Belgrade media report about large police raids in apartments, student dorms and refugee camps. The kidnapers are Martic's and Karadzic's policemen in uniforms with generous help of the Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs. The police is taking away even people born in Serbia who have worked in Bosnia and Croatia in the past.
Brutal kidnapers threaten young men with weapons and handcuff them. There are even murders. The papers write about a savage hunt on refugees in Belgrade; among the refugees rules a psychosis of fear and betrayal. After being caught, the recruits are transported to collection centers, the largest of which is in Sremska Mitrovica. Resistance is not advisable at all. Nasa Borba and Vreme reveal a case of a certain Mirko Drljaca, a logger, originally from Virovitica [Croatia], who a year ago became a Serbian citizen. When he tried to escape from the collection center in Sremska Mitrovica, Drljaca was cut across the legs by a burst of fire from a machine gun.
Karadzic gave a 5 July deadline to everyone on the deportation lists to join the Mladic's units. Otherwise they will face a military tribunal. Karadzic obviously isn't thinking about peace; his long term strategy is war. By sending him reinforcements in a shape of cannon fodder, Milosevic makes it clear that he supports Karadzic in that [strategy]. It is not clear how the West will react to that fact, having in mind that the Serbian president has been trying to convince it the opposite. Besides, we are also talking about human rights violations. But who cares about that these days? In any case, Milosavic took off the mask of a peacemaker from his warrior face. By deporting them across the Drina, Milosevic cheated bosnian and croatian Serbs for a third time. At first, he pushed them into a pan-serbian state which will amount to nothing. Then he greeted them with open arms as refugees, actually victims of his bloody adventures, promising a pleasant stay in Serbia, only to return them back to where they escaped from. Now, the trenches and death are waiting for them; these are the only things Milosevic can offer to the Serbs.