Serbs Step Up Removal Of Guns Near Sarajevo As Deadline Looms Talks Continue Over How To Divide Up Bosnia, End Fighting

Their deadline a day away, Bosnian Serbs picked up their pace Saturday, moving dozens of heavy weapons away from Sarajevo. Their U.N.-imposed orders remained: Show real progress or face more NATO air attacks.

Chaos reigned to the northwest, in the area of the Serb stronghold of Banja Luka, where Serbs by the tens of thousands fled as Muslim-led government soldiers and allied Bosnian Croat troops advanced.

The United Nations said that “everybody is prepared” to resume bombing Serb targets unless the rebels withdraw about 200 big guns. NATO warplanes flew over the Bosnian capital throughout the day in a visible echo of the warning.

After two weeks of NATO air attacks, Bosnian Serbs agreed Thursday to move their heaviest artillery at least 12-1/2 miles away from Sarajevo. That won them a three-day reprieve from the bombing raids.

Rebel soldiers put up a show of moving cannons, tanks and other deadly hardware Saturday for journalists invited to positions southwest and just southeast of the city.

“We will be back,” vowed one rebel soldier who identified himself only as Dragan. “We should have stayed and fought till the end.”

Associated Press reporter Jovana Gec saw about 30 weapons on the move but could not tell whether they left the zone or stopped just out of view.

But the movements appeared genuine. By nightfall, the Serbs had moved 43 of the approximately 200 weapons falling under the agreement from the 12.5-mile weapons exclusion zone around Sarajevo, leaving U.S. Secretary of Defense William Perry to say that “preliminary indications are positive.”

But Perry, in Slovenia as part of a south-central Europe visit, underscored that either lack of Serb withdrawal or new attacks on Sarajevo “could lead to a resumption of bombing.”

The Serbs have until 10 p.m. (1 p.m. PDT) Sunday to show significant progress. If they do, the airstrikes will be suspended for another three days to permit them to finish relocating their heavy weapons.

“This action better take place. Otherwise, everybody is prepared to go back to airstrikes,” warned U.N. spokesman Phil Arnold.

The Bosnian government is unhappy with the terms of the Serb pullout around Sarajevo because it includes only weapons of extremely large caliber - mortars bigger than 82 mm and artillery bigger than 100 mm. Previously, the United Nations and NATO had insisted on withdrawal of all guns over 12.7 mm.

Prime Minister Haris Silajdzic was scornful. “It doesn’t make any difference whether you are killed by a 120-mm or an 82-mm mortar shell,” he told reporters.

As they withdrew the weapons, the Serbs also honored other parts of the agreement - reopening Sarajevo airport to U.N. and humanitarian flights and giving U.N. and relief agencies access to roads connecting the city to the outside world.

The U.S. diplomat who brokered the heavy weapons agreement, Richard Holbrooke, said Friday that the United States would urge immediate resumption of NATO bombing if the Serbs did not fully comply with the pullout.

Holbrooke, an assistant secretary of state, held talks Saturday with the regional powerbroker, Serbia’s President Slobodan Milosevic. The closed-door discussions outside Belgrade presumably focused on the situation around Sarajevo as well as an overall peace plan tentatively accepted by the warring sides.

Under the plan, the Muslim-led Bosnian government and its Bosnian Croat allies would get 51 percent of Bosnia, and the Serbs, who now have about two-thirds of the territory, 49 percent. But they disagree on who gets what territory, and Sarajevo is the biggest stumbling block. The Serbs want a chunk of the capital, something the Bosnian government rejects.

While dragging their feet on arms removal, the Serbs have done better on complying with other parts of the agreement: reopening Sarajevo airport to U.N. and humanitarian flights and giving U.N. and relief agencies access to roads connecting the city to the outside world.

The humanitarian airlift, stopped in April by Serb attacks, was operating smoothly. Eleven U.N. convoys, most carrying supplies for peacekeepers, arrived Saturday.

In the northwest, Serb refugees were converging on Banja Luka after leaving their homes to escape advancing Bosnian government and Croat troops.

Local Bosnian Serb officials said more than 80,000 refugees had arrived in the city.