ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, December 31, 1995 TAG: 9601020169
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: SARAJEVO, BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA
SOURCE: Associated Press
A U.S. military police officer who drove over a land mine Saturday became the first American wounded in the Bosnia peace mission, which was again delayed when floodwaters prevented the bulk of the U.S. soldiers taking part from leaving Croatia.
Also Saturday, in a decision likely to raise tensions, NATO announced there would be no delay in unifying Sarajevo under the Muslim-led government. The Bosnian Serbs had requested the postponement, saying they fear reprisals.
Spc. Martin John Begosh of Rockville, Md., was in stable condition at the U.S. military hospital at Zupanja, Croatia, after driving over a mine in a Humvee, said Maj. Simon Haselock, a NATO spokesman.
Begosh, a member of the 709th Military Police Battalion, was in the first of the four vehicles when it hit a mine on a snow-covered road halfway between Zupanja and Tuzla.
Tuzla is the headquarters for the 20,000 American troops who will be patrolling northeastern Bosnia as part of the NATO-led operation. Zupanja is the Croatian border town where U.S. Army engineers are building a pontoon bridge over the Sava River into Bosnia for the U.S. deployment.
Engineers were unable to complete the bridge Saturday because flooding caused by recent thaws made the venture too risky. ``We'll do it tomorrow morning,'' said Brig. Gen. James O'Neal.
U.S. troops who already have arrived in the Tuzla area are depending on the bridge to transport more troops and equipment.
O'Neal said rising water, which spilled over the Sava's banks, made it unsafe to anchor a key section of the bridge to land.
Tension over Sarajevo continued to complicate the peace accord, reached in Dayton, Ohio, and signed Dec. 14 in Paris. Serbs who have held some Sarajevo districts throughout the war say they will never submit to the Bosnian government. The peace plan foresees the government resuming control of those Serb-held areas by March 19.
U.S. Adm. Leighton Smith, commander of the NATO-led force in Bosnia, apparently overstepped his bounds in suggesting last week that he could shift that deadline.
On Saturday, a statement from him said the transfer of authority would begin Feb. 4, as foreseen under terms of the peace agreement.
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