Tuzla welcomes American troops: 'They are our friends.'

BY CAMERON McWHIRTER
The Cincinnati Enquirer

TUZLA, Bosnia-Herzegovina - Children here call it the invasion of the Ninja Turtles.

U.S. soldiers - clad in bulky camouflage uniforms, flak jackets, helmets and black boots - ride through the streets in heavily armed convoys every day, to and from Tuzla Air Base, headquarters of U.S. operations in Bosnia.

In a matter of a couple of months, the U.S. military has transformed the Yugoslav military airport into its central command center for Operation Joint Endeavor.

Tuzla residents, from waving children to smiling adults, appear thrilled.

"They are our friends. We asked them to come here," Mustafa Zonic, 50, a building engineer, said through an interpreter. "All the big weapons, well, we have grown familiar with that sort of thing in the last four years."

Tuzla Air Base is expected to eventually house about 2,300 troops, in a complex originally built for 500. Under the Dayton peace accord, American soldiers are responsible for patrolling a large swath of northeast Bosnia, from around Tuzla up to the Sava River, Bosnia's border with Croatia.

At full force, the United States is expected to have between 20,000 and 24,000 soldiers in the war-torn nation. While the military won't release specific numbers, the troop strength now is thought to be 20,000.

More than 40,000 other NATO troops, including British, French and Canadian, also are in the country.

American commanders have been strict about contact with the local population in Bosnia: No soldiers are allowed off base for recreation. On assignment, soldiers travel only in convoys of at least four Humvees, with the .50-caliber machine guns on the first and last vehicles loaded and manned.

Unless they are on a specific mission to talk with local officials, U.S. troops are not to engage civilians in conversation.

But despite the regulations, Tuzla children and teen-agers often try to talk with U.S. soldiers at checkpoints. Subjects range from Michael Jordan to the latest rock videos.

"I would like to be an American soldier, a Marine," said Mirsad Hadzibeganovic, 16. "I don't want to be in the Bosnian army, only in the American, because I think that they are the only real power in the world."

Fatima Hadzibeganovic, 47, Mirsad's mother, said she found the daily display of American firepower disconcerting at first when she ran errands.

"When you first see all those trucks, it is uncomfortable, to be sure," she said. "But when you realize they are Americans and their mission is peace, you accept it and go on with your day."

Mrs. Hadzibeganovic, a Tuzla city judge, had associated safety with the United States long before the soldiers came. Her eldest son, Sead, 18, was part of a group of 27 Bosnian teen-agers flown to Northern Kentucky in September 1995 under a program called Project Shelter. He now lives with the Holzderber family on Garden Way in Edgewood, Ky. Scheduled to graduate from Covington Catholic High School this spring, he will return to Tuzla in the summer.

Besides halting the war, the arrival of U.S. troops has revived the moribund local economy. Hundreds of Bosnians have been hired at the base as interpreters, drivers, janitors and construction workers. Local bakeries and other food suppliers are starting to receive contracts to supply the troops.

Because American troops are forbidden to leave the base at night for security reasons, downtown restaurants and bars have seen no direct gain from the arrival of the troops. But the city's two surviving hotels have seen a steady stream of journalists since the NATO plan went into effect in December.

Tuzla's inhabitants all seem convinced the American base, about 9 miles from downtown, near the suburb of Donje Dubrave, is here to stay. The rumor goes that the bulk of Americans will leave Bosnia after one year as President Clinton promised, but the U.S. military will keep the air base for its strategic importance in Eastern Europe. Residents can't believe the United States would pour all this money and effort into transforming the air base and then not keep it.

For citizens of this factory and mining town, a long-term American presence would mean peace and steady jobs - two things the city sorely needs.

Tuzla, Bosnia's fourth-largest city before the war, had a population of about 130,000. Today it has swelled to an unknown number as Muslim refugees have fled neighboring villages.

The city suffered terribly in the conflict, though not as badly as the capital, Sarajevo. The predominantly Muslim town always was under the Bosnian government's control, but was perpetually attacked by surIn 1993, the town was surrounded, and civilians survived the winter only by cutting down nearby trees and eating food donated by the United Nations.

Throughout the war, the Bosnian Serb soldiers shot rocket-propelled grenades into the city. The worst incident occurred one evening in May 1995, when a single grenade exploded in the old city square called the Kapija (the gate). The area was crowded with teen-agers out on the town when the grenade hit. Seventy-two people were killed and about 150 were injured.

"No more war, that is what the Americans bring," Hvana Terzic, 32, said, standing next to a small monument marking the spot where the teen-agers were killed. The marker is covered with flowers and passers-by stop to pray at the site.

"All of the Americans with their guns, they are intimidating. And that is good for our people because the fighting has stopped."

As she spoke, a small convoy of American soldiers pulled up to the Kapija. Soldiers, armed and in full battle gear, then walked through the square. One soldier, breaking regulations, stooped to talk with inquisitive children.

"With them here I think this war is done," Mrs. Terzic said as she looked on. "I really think they are going to stay more than a year. . . . Maybe we will eventually become part of the United States."

Published Feb. 14, 1996