Sections

Peace in Bosnia faces new threats

From Daily Wire Services

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina -- The Bosnian peace process was cracking on two fronts yesterday as Croats rebelled over the European Union's plan to divvy up the city of Mostar, and a dispute deepened over the Muslim detention of high-ranking Serb officers as suspected war criminals.

Events in Mostar turned violent, with angry Croats stoning European Union vehicles and surrounding the EU administrator, Hans Koschnick, in his car until NATO peacekeepers intervened. The Bosnian Croat leadership announced it was severing all ties with the EU, the body designated to manage and bring peace to the divided city, which was the scene of a brutal 1993 Muslim-Croat war.

Tensions in Mostar underscore the fragility of the Muslim-Croat Federation that is the linchpin of the U.S.-brokered peace accord, which on Dec. 14 formally ended Bosnia's war.

The region's other enemies, the Muslims and Serbs, traded accusations meanwhile over the Sarajevo government's arrest of 10 Serbs, including a Bosnian Serb army general, as suspected war criminals. Already infuriated Serb leaders became even angrier yesterday when the U.N.'s War Crimes Tribunal asked the Bosnian government to continue to detain the men while it decided whether to indict them.

The men must "be released if we want peace on Bosnia-Herzegovina territory," said Gen. Milan Gvero, deputy to Bosnian Serb army commander Gen. Ratko Mladic.

Mladic -- himself an indicted war criminal -- issued a rare public statement after nearly two months of silence, warning that the "kidnapping" of the officers calls into question the impartiality of the NATO peace-keeping mission. Some of the Serbs were reportedly detained as they crossed NATO-supervised areas.

"The kidnapping presents a big test for the peace forces," Mladic said, according to Bosnian Serb television. "Either the Muslims will be shown that all nations get the same treatment or the members of (NATO) are going to turn into a military force against the Serbs."

Protesting the arrests, the Serb leadership Tuesday suspended contact with government officials and banned its members from traveling to government-held areas -- meaning they would skip a meeting later this week with Prince Charles, among other people.

The Serbs contend that the Bosnian police violated the peace accord's free-movement provisions by arresting Gen. Djordje Djukic and Col. Aleksa Krsmanovic. The government is accusing Djukic and Krsmanovic of involvement in the massacres of civilians.

U.S. Navy Admiral Leighton Smith, commander of all NATO forces in Bosnia and suddenly a man trying to put out multiple fires, traveled to Bosnian Serb military headquarters to appeal for calm and restraint. He told reporters he was working on "how to get through this problem" and return "towards the cooperation we saw in the past."

"The international tribunal is doing its work. I think we have to allow that to proceed and hopefully it will be resolved to the satisfaction of everyone," Smith told reporters.

The arrests were particularly problematic. The Muslim-led government sees itself empowered by the peace accord to push war criminals toward justice. The Bosnian Serbs see their worst nightmare realized: detention on what they consider trumped-up charges when they attempt to venture into government-held territory -- precisely the fate dreaded by Serbs in Sarajevo suburbs that have reverted to government control under the peace treaty.

In Mostar, southwest of Sarajevo, tensions exploded after Koschnick announced a long-awaited plan to unify the city by drawing the boundaries of six districts. Three were to be Croat and three were to be Muslim. But Koschnick surprised his audience by adding a seventh central district that would control the railway station, airport and three power-generating stations.

Muslims from poorer eastern Mostar welcomed the plan, but the Croats, saying the seventh district would be dominated by Muslims who'd be given an advantage, protested vigorously.

Koschnick tried to leave the EU headquarters where he announced the decision but his car was surrounded by demonstrators who covered the vehicle with a huge Croatian flag. Some of the protesters yelled, "He should be killed. ... He should hang," according to EU spokesman Dragan Gasic.