Leader Implores Serbs Not To Flee

The most powerful Serb leader pleaded with Sarajevo Serbs on Friday to stop fleeing the city, joining with NATO commanders who are trying to make Serbs and Muslims live in harmony.

As a ragged convoy of Serbs rumbled out of the Bosnian capital, Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic told the Sarajevo Serbs’ mayor, Maksim Stanisic, that “there is no reason” to flee.

About 100 Serbs are leaving daily from four Serb-held suburbs that will come under Muslim-led Bosnian government control on March 19. Some are burning their homes in a final gesture of defiance. Serbs have also carried away factory machinery and hospital equipment.

The departure of tens of thousands of Serbs in winter, with no food or shelter, would be more than a humanitarian disaster. It would also erode the peace plan, which aims to rebuild a multi-ethnic Bosnia - at least in those areas of the country under the control of the Bosnian government.