ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Tuesday, February 27, 1996             TAG: 9602270107
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL   PAGE: A-6  EDITION: METRO 
DATELINE: SARAJEVO, BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA
SOURCE: Associated Press 

LAST SERBS LEAVE SARAJEVO SUBURBS; HOPES OF MULTIETHNIC HARMONY END

The Bosnian Serb military returned Monday to Sarajevo suburbs it once controlled. This time, its forces were evacuating the few thousand Serbs remaining in the Bosnian capital.

The departure of thousands of Serbs in advance of the city's reunification next month under Bosnian government rule stifles hopes that Sarajevo could retain some of its multiethnic character.

Kris Janowski, a spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, expressed dismay at the NATO force's decision to allow Bosnian Serb military trucks into the districts of Vogosca, Ilijas and Rajlovac to pick up refugees and their belongings.

Officials of the force said they did not want the Serbs to go, but that they were facing reality: Most Serbs preferred leaving to submitting to the rule of Bosnia's Muslim-led government.

Although the Bosnian peace agreement left no side thinking it was the clear winner, Sarajevo's Serbs say they lost the most because they have to turn over their five districts to the government by March 19.

Of perhaps 50,000 Serbs who lived in western suburbs such as Vogosca, Ilijas and Hadzici, only about 5,000 remain. International officials expect most of them to leave, too.

There was no count of the number who left Monday with the 40 Bosnian Serb military trucks permitted into the area to collect them.

Some of the people waiting for transport out of Vogosca said they had not been mistreated by the Muslim-Croat federation police who started patrolling Friday.

``They are all very polite,'' said Jadranka Bosiljevic, who came to Vogosca after fleeing from Visoko in central Bosnia. ``But I am in a Muslim house, so I don't dare stay.''

Returning Muslims and Croats examined what remained of houses they had left in good shape before the war, but were stripped bare by departing Serbs.

LENGTH: Short :   47 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:  AP. Hungarian engineers build a pontoon bridge Monday 
          across the Sava River at Gradiska, between Croatia and Bosnia. It 
          will serve as a border crossing until the main bridge is repaired.