French Distrust Upsets Peace Plan

Reflecting growing tension between the Bosnian government and the French troops who patrol Sarajevo, Bosnian officials said Saturday that the French forces could not be depended on to police the Dayton peace accord and should be replaced by Americans once NATO arrives.

“We don’t trust them and we think they will fail in implementing this agreement,” said Hasan Muratovic, minister for relations with the United Nations. “Therefore, we are asking NATO to change the deployment plan so they are not the only force here. We would like Americans and may ask the French to leave entirely.”

The Bosnian government’s request followed the publication of comments by Gen. Jean-Rene Bachelet, the French commander of peacekeepers in the area, who suggested the Dayton accord was a political ploy by the United States that would prove unworkable around Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital, unless it included additional guarantees for the Serbs living there.

Under the peace agreement, which is to be signed in Paris in two weeks, most Serbian-held land around the Bosnian capital would fall under the rule of the Muslim-Croat Federation some time in March.

“Time is running short to the Paris conference and the alarm bell is ringing,” the French newspaper Ouest-France reported Bachelet as saying on Thursday. “If we are not careful, the situation will become unsustainable for us who are in charge of a process created by others.”

“Richard Holbrooke, the American negotiator, had only one goal: to obtain an agreement at whatever cost to serve the electoral interests of an American candidate,” he said.

The peace accord puts Sarajevo in the sector of Bosnia that would be patrolled by French troops. American diplomats said that in light of the comments, the Bosnian request to remove the troops from Sarajevo would be taken seriously but that NATO would be the final arbiter.

“This is an ethnic conflict - a situation that requires some sensitivity on the part the troops there - so we are looking into the Bosnian government’s concerns and have conveyed them to Washington,” said one American diplomat.

Bachelet stood by his comments Saturday, noting only that they were personal observations made at an off-the-record meeting with journalists.

His concerns appear to mirror those of his government.

French President Jacques Chirac has written to President Clinton asking for additional guarantees for the Serbs, while French Defense Minister Charles Millon has been negotiating with NATO to gain assurances that French troops, who are not now under NATO command, would not fall under American control.