ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, December 28, 1995 TAG: 9512280074
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: SARAJEVO, BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA
SOURCE: Associated Press
Working to meet the first deadline of Bosnia's peace agreement, the government and rebel Serbs pulled their forces back Wednesday from key areas around Sarajevo. NATO troops moved gingerly into the abandoned zones, wary of hidden hazards.
On the former front line, French troops took over a moonscape of shell-pocked buildings, discarded weaponry, unexploded grenades and graffiti: ``The Islamic Republic of Bosnia'' on one wall, ``Sex, Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll'' scrawled nearby.
The deadline for the pullback of government and Serb troops and equipment from 38 designated areas around Sarajevo was midnight (6 p.m. EST) Wednesday, a week after NATO formally took over in Bosnia from the United Nations.
Wednesday's was the first in a series of deadlines in the peace agreement signed Dec. 14 in Paris. Shortly after the deadline, Capt. Jost Fohann, a NATO spokesman in Sarajevo, said, ``The operation has been successful.'' He would not elaborate.
In Sarajevo, Bosnian army officials said Wednesday that several houses had been set on fire overnight in Serb-held districts southwest of the city. They also warned that, if NATO agrees to Serb demands to delay the timetable for turning over Serb-held areas of Sarajevo, it would weaken the NATO mission.
Bosnian Serbs have cautioned the NATO commander, U.S. Adm. Leighton Smith, that the success of his peace mission might hinge on extending the deadlines. Smith said he made no promises but would consider their demand.
Though flooding of key rivers hampered NATO efforts, there were other promising signs that peace was gaining momentum after 31/2 years of bloodshed:
nIn the village of Porebrice, 37 miles north of Tuzla, Maj. Gen. William Nash, commander of U.S. forces, brought together commanders of Bosnia's three warring factions to discuss freedom of movement and mine removal.
nU.S. forces reported cooperation from all sides in land mine removal.
nBritish troops entered and began setting up base Tuesday in the northwestern Bosnian Serb stronghold of Banja Luka, said Lt. Col. Mark Rayner, a military spokesman.
nU.S. engineers trying to build a pontoon bridge across the Sava River in the north were preparing to pull back from its flooded banks. In the southwest, dozens of French military tents were flooded as the Neretva River overflowed.
Gen. Nash said he expected the bridge to be completed ``in the next several days.''
``As soon as we put the bridge in and connect the ends, we'll start rolling folks across,'' he said.
Nash said construction of the bridge is the easy part. The army also has to worry about local traffic patterns, river conditions and where soldiers will go when they come across.
In the aftermath of the Sarajevo pullbacks, French NATO soldiers are taking positions along the front lines to keep the two sides apart.
The commander of the French patrol, Maj. Rodolphe d'Almont, said the front never moved during the war through uncounted skirmishes.
``Each position is like a little fortress inside a building. ... The fighting was static,'' he said. ``They just shot at each other, at soldiers and civilians.''
Wednesday, in the hotly contested suburb of Dobrinja, a French armored personnel carrier patrolled the former front, accompanied by five foot soldiers and a dog. They searched for and marked mines and placed barbed wire along the onetime front line.
NATO spokesmen said things were going well overall, but it was unclear whether there would be 100 percent compliance in all 38 areas designated by the deadline.
There is a second series of deadlines for the Serbs to turn over Sarajevo districts they control to the Bosnian government, beginning Jan. 19.
In Porebrice, a Bosnian village, Nash intentionally held the meeting with the Bosnian commanders in a destroyed guest house less than 11/2 miles from the former front lines, said U.S. Col. Henry W. Stratman, chief of the Joint Military Commission.
Nash said later that all three sides had been cooperative in identifying and removing land mines.
The war has left 200,000 people dead or missing and created more than 2 million refugees.
LENGTH: Medium: 88 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. 1. Nature has been the NATO force's main obstacle soby CNBfar. Wednesday, the Neretva River washed out a French base near
Mostar. 2. Mud-mired U.S. soldiers discuss a bridge project delayed
by the flooding Sava River at Zupanja, 174 miles east of Zagreb.
color.