Arrests Threaten Bosnian Peace Accord

While infuriated Bosnian Serbs pulled back from peace terms, a top war-crimes prosecutor supported the government’s arrest of two senior Serb officers believed responsible for civilian massacres.

The arrests threaten to shred Bosnia’s entire peace accord. The Serbs say Bosnian police violated the U.S.-brokered peace accord’s free-movement provisions by arresting Gen. Djordje Djukic and Col. Aleksa Krsmanovic a week ago after their driver made a wrong turn into government territory near Sarajevo.

But in The Hague, Netherlands, chief U.N. war crimes prosecutor Richard Goldstone said there were adequate grounds for Bosnian authorities to continue holding the pair.

Bosnian authorities say Djukic and Krsmanovic are believed responsible for mass killings of civilians around Sarajevo.