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BOSNIA IS WITNESSING “the biggest exodus” since the 1990s war, authorities have said, after the worst floods in a century inundated huge swathes of the Balkans, killing at least 47 peoples
Muddy waters from the Sava River have submerged houses, churches, mosques and roads in Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia after record rainfall last week wreaked havoc across the region.
There were fears that dead bodies and animal carcasses could lead to disease outbreaks, while officials warned that 120,000 unexploded mines from the conflicts of the 1990s could be dislodged.
“More than 100,000 people” have been evacuated in Bosnia alone, said Stanko Sliskovic of Bosnia’s emergency services, with tens of thousands more displaced in neighbouring countries.
“This is the biggest exodus since the end of the 1992-1995 war,” he told AFP.
Dozens of towns and villages have been cut off and over 2,000 landslides already reported, with water levels expected to continue rising in the coming days.
In Kosova, a hamlet between the northwestern Bosnian towns of Doboj and Maglaj which was badly hit by flooding, people’s homes were almost visibly moving as the loose terrain shifted.
Around 20 homes “have slid down 30 metres (yards) since yesterday. They will not exist tomorrow,” a rescue worker said.
Bosnian Foreign Minister Zlatko Lagumdzija said more than a quarter of the country’s population of 3.8 million “has been affected by the floods” after the heaviest rainfalls on record began last week.
“Right now, more than one million people have no water,” he said.
In Serbia, some 600,000 of its 7.2 million inhabitants were affected by “severe floods following the heaviest rains the Balkans have witnessed in 120 years,” the UN’s World Food Programme said in a statement.
“This is Armageddon, I can’t describe it otherwise,” Nedeljko Brankovic told AFP from Krupanj, a town in the southwestern Serbia. “Houses are literally washed away and landslides are everywhere.”
The death toll from the floods rose to 47 Monday after two new victims were found overnight in a village near the western Serbian town of Sabac.
Neighbouring Croatia has also evacuated thousands of people from along the river Sava.
Rescuers told of wrenching scenes as they finally reached cut-off villages, with dozens of people huddling on top of the tallest houses with no water or food.
“It was like a tsunami,” said Suad Garanovic, resident of the Bosnian village of Topcic Polje, as he looked over his house, now drowned in mud.
“This is the second time I’ve fled my house. The first time was during the war. Now, just like then, I’ve lost everything,” said Nihad Smajlovic in a nearby hamlet.
Svetlana Obojcic described her rescue along with neighbours from the top floor of her building in the Serbian town of Obrenovac.
“All 30 of us were in one flat for three days without electricity,” said the mother-of-two, hugging her six-year old twins in a temporary shelter in the Belgrade suburb of Sumice.
“We ate what we had, we did not have enough water, but at least we are dry now,” she said.
More than half of Obrenovac’s population of 20,000 had already been evacuated by Friday and Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic on Monday ordered the rest be brought to safety.
Health authorities have ordered inhabitants not to return to their homes until they would be cleared from the debris and safe from diseases.
“We have to react properly to avoid an even worse catastrophe, to avoid infectuous diseases,” Serbian Health Minister Zlatibor Loncar told state TV RTS.
Emergency teams were desperately trying to strengthen defences at the nearby Nikola Tesla power plant, which produces around half of Serbia’s electricity and is currently only protected by temporary dikes built by thousands of volunteers along the swollen Sava River.
“I am devastated. I have left everything, my cattle, my pigs, my chickens. Thank God my wife, children and grandchildren are safe,” said 78-year old pensioner Veselin Rankovic from Zabrezje, a nearby village.
In a potentially deadly side-effect, officials in Bosnia warned on Monday that some 120,000 unexploded mines left over from the Balkan war of the 1990s could be dislodged and moved.
“Water and landslides have possibly moved some mines and taken away mine warning signs,” Sasa Obradovic, an official of Bosnia’s Mine Action Centre told AFP.
He warned residents to be “extremely cautious when they start cleaning their houses, land or gardens as the remaining mud could hide mines and other explosive devices brought by rivers.”
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SF will never say such actions are not justified. They still claim the Birmingham bombings were legitimate targets and it was a result of the phones were not working which led to innocent people being murdered. When dealing with a group of people ie SF, who quite clearly have an across the board low level of intelligence and education (there is the odd clever one), coupled with their lack of moral threshold, it is always going to be difficult to move forward.
@Nick Allen: what makes you think this was the work of republicans?
@Nick Allen: Clearly you have a low level of intelligence as the Waterside area is THE loyalist area of Derry city and it’d be more likely to see a polar bear than a Shinner there
@Nick Allen: nick as a Derry man I can tell you that these pipe bombs were found in a staunchly loyalist area of Derry,but don’t let the facts get in the way of your agenda
@Paul Devlin:
I️ didn’t suggest it was SF. The article said it needs people from across the community to say it is and always was unjustified. SF is definitely a stakeholder in the community and I️ was simply highlighting that they will never say that.
@Nick Allen: what are you on about? A big long post of rubbish. Check the facts first maybe.
@Ross Taylor:
Ross, I️ think it maybe you lacking the grey cells. Try reading the article again and then my comment. Then please come back and highlight where I️ said it was SF and how my comment does not specifically reference a point made in the article
@Martin Doherty:
No agenda, just stating the facts. As I said to the other posters who don’t manage to read the article or my comment correctly, please show me where I️ said this was SF
@Harry morriarty:
Again another person not able to assimilate simple information. Try reading the article and my response again
@Martin Doherty:
Nick is a member of the Fine Gael multiple account ghoul squad on here. The ones that like to haunt the comments section to fabricate as much nonsense as possible. They get particularly aroused and hard when they find SF articles.
@Tweed Cap:
The article is not about SF and if you care to read it and if you knew anything about the history you would probably understand that it is not suggesting it was SF. What other name do I use? Any proof of that or is it just more of the BS you make up on here on a regular basis?
@Nick Allen: Well, that’s a retreat quicker than diarrhea. I’ve read, and re-read your original post. It mentions SF only. Nothing about loyalists. So it’s 100% that your intention was to lay the blame at SFs door.
@Nick Allen:
Pull the other one Nicky. It has Christmas bells on it.
@Father Hody Commody:
Its not a retreat. I simply posted that SF will never say that the means were not justified which is in relation to the specific point in the article which says “We need to hear a united message from across the community that such actions have never been justified and they will never be successful.”
How come simple English is so challenging for some people to understand
@Nick Allen: “The article is not about SF…” then why mention them?
@Tweed Cap:
Can you actually point out any inaccuracies in what I am saying or show where I am not making a comment in relation something in the article. Other than posting unfounded accusations can you come up with any type of comment that has any level of intelligence or debate or is that completely beyond you?
@Nick Allen: go to bed! Your embarrassing yourself!
@TonySuperSaints:
Did you read the comments or the actual article. Maybe try doing that before posting
@Nick Allen: Did you read the article? Or maybe there is more than one Nick Allen posting because you are the one who said “The article is not about SF…” I asked then, why mention them?
@TonySuperSaints:
If you read the comments as suggested you would have discovers why but I️ will explain it again for you. Towards the end of the article it calls for all members of the community to say that it is and always has been an unjustified action. I️ am sure you will agree that SF are a very important group which is a member of the community. I️ am highlighting that SF will never say that this type of action is and always was unjustified. I️ backed this statement up with the story about the Birmingham bombings as SF still claim the pubs were legitimate targets. So although the article is not about SF it does reference them as a part of the community. I️ trust that clears it up for you.
@Nick Allen: mighty straw clutching there.
@Nick Allen:
“SF will never say such actions are not justified.” (Nick Allen)
“Can you actually point out any inaccuracies in what I am saying” (Nick Allen)
@Nick Allen:
I can post up a list as long as your arm of SF condemning dissident attacks (assuming that’s what you meant when you referred to “such actions”). But if its the specific phrase “not justified” you want then…
@Nick Allen:
‘Sinn Fein South Down MLA, Caitriona Ruane, said those responsible were “attempting to carry out an unjustified campaign of violence”.’
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-10902438
‘In a statement on Tuesday, Sinn Féin said it believed his killing was “wrong and unjustifiable”‘
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-37352016
@Nick Allen:
‘There is no justification for dissidents’ activities of these gangs says Sinn Féin’
http://www.irishnews.com/news/2014/10/30/news/there-is-no-justification-for-dissidents-activities-of-these-gangs-says-sinn-fe-in-106649/
Shall I keep going?
@Nick Allen:
http://irishecho.com/2011/04/sinn-feins-sheehan-condemns-dissident-violence/
“Unfortunately there are others out there who will continue to justify the use of force – they can’t justify it,” (Pat Sheehan speech condemning dissident groups)
@Nick Allen:
http://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/crime/grow-up-sinn-fein-man-tells-dissidents-1-7326556
‘There is no justification for these actions’ (Oliver McMullan, SF)
@Nick Allen:
http://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/ireland/adams-condemns-dissidents-over-bomb-500607.html?utm_source=link&utm_medium=click&utm_campaign=nextandprev
‘There is no excuse, justification or explanation’ (Gerry Adams)
@Nick Allen:
https://www.irishnews.com/news/2017/10/31/news/new-dissident-group-claims-it-left-device-in-west-belfast-1175546/
‘Sinn Féin MLA Órlaithí Flynn last night condemned those responsible for the alert. “They have no regard whatsoever for the local community,” she said. “There can be no justification for this type of activity and I would appeal to anyone with information to contact the police.”’
@Nick Allen:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jan/13/belfast-couple-shot-in-legs-while-protecting-son-paramilitaries
‘Sinn Féin’s west Belfast assembly member, Pat Sheehan, condemned the shooting…”whatever the motivation for this shooting, there is absolutely no justification for it,”’
Vile “republican” terrorists unfortunately remain a permanent feature of this country
@For Connolly: the area this happened in is actually a very Protestant area which leads to belief that this is a loyalist story not a republican story. Please stop being “wee todded”.
@For Connolly: As do loyalists and an Irish government that will do as much as it can to return the North to the state it was in 25 years ago.
@For Connolly: you would wonder why the Labour party made them a senator and introduced them into Irish parliament?
B€€€ards should be publicly hung if caught, send out a warning to any other fools that think they are “hard men”
Slightly off the point but is ‘commuuunity’ or ‘davastaytan’ the only f’in words northies know? Never met 1 that did not either of these words in any conversation
@John Barnes: just like ” stooreee bud”is the only thing dub’s say or” top o the morning ” for all Irish people.
@Leadóg: never heard an Irish person say top o the morning
@John Barnes: “sityaation ” …
@Ryan: the sityaation hare in thas cammuunaty is devastaytan
Very sad
Thanks monoculturalism
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