Nato Suspends Air Strikes, But Serbs Must Move Guns Quickly

NATO suspended air strikes against Bosnian Serbs rebels Thursday as American diplomats announced a breakthrough agreement that may end the long and bloody siege of Sarajevo.

U.S. officials said the agreement - reached during a marathon negotiating session led by U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke in the Serbian capital of Belgrade - calls for the Serb rebels to withdraw their heavy weapons to a line 12.5 miles outside the Bosnian capital and to open Sarajevo’s airport and roads.

A NATO source in Brussels, Belgium, stressed Thursday that the air strike suspension will last just “hours, not days” until it can be established that the Serbs are actually moving the guns that have terrorized Sarajevo’s civilian population. Other reports said NATO had given the Serbs 72 hours.

NATO spokesman Jamie Shea said in Brussels on Thursday night that the alliance was “hopeful but very cautious.” And, she quickly added, “There have been many broken promises, many dashed hopes.” Western sources said the Bosnian Serbs agreed to the gun withdrawal only if the Muslim-led Bosnian military agreed to cease hostilities against the Serbs in the Sarajevo area.

That could be a sticking point that holds up the deal. Holbrooke continued to meet with Bosnian government officials in the western Bosnian city of Mostar on Thursday night, and there was no word that they had signed on to the new agreement.

Still, as one Bosnian expert in Washington noted Thursday, the new agreement means that “the Serbs blinked.”

For the last two weeks, Bosnian Serb forces have refused to make even the slightest move toward meeting NATO and United Nations demands that they remove heavy guns from around Sarajevo - a move U.N. and NATO officials stressed was necessary before punishing air strikes against Serb positions would be halted.

The new agreement is “exciting,” said U.N. spokesman Philip Arnold in Zagreb, the Croatian capital. There is “good confidence everyone is on board.”

The air strike suspension came during a whirlwind day of pivotal events in Bosnia that many hoped were pushing the region toward a lasting peace.

“This is a most crucial point, a crossroads between real peace and more intensified fighting,” said United Nations official Yasushi Akashi here.

Early in the day, Bosnian Muslims allied with Croatian military forces continued bold advances in western Bosnian, reclaiming vast swaths of territory held by the Bosnian Serbs.

As the offensive continued with practically no resistance from the Serbs, Holbrooke, assistant U.S. secretary of state, arrived in Zagreb to announce that he had met through the night in Belgrade with Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, who recently promised to negotiate on the Bosnian Serbs’ behalf.

In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns said the Serbs’ two chief leaders, Radovan Karadzic and military strongman Ratko Mladic, were present at some point during the meeting.

Back in Zagreb after leaving Belgrade, Holbrooke said he was bearing an “important message” from the Serbs and was headed for talks with Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic. That message apparently contained the Serbs’ offer to withdraw heavy weapons from around Sarajevo. Within hours, NATO officials in Brussels announced that they were suspending the air strikes.

Western officials said Thursday they believed that both the new Muslim-Croat offensives and the continued NATO air strikes helped push the Serbs toward a weapons withdrawal agreement.

The Bosnian Serbs are widely believed to have suffered significant losses during the NATO strikes, which targeted ammunition dumps, communications centers, command posts and other critical structures.

Still, many observers here viewed Thursday’s agreement as evidence the Serbs were merely being practical. Several noted that the new Muslim-Croat advances were simply reclaiming territory that the Serbs would likely surrender anyway during the peace negotiations that were announced by Holbrooke last week.

Under the framework for peace agreed to last week in Geneva, all sides are expected to agree to a 51-49 percent split of Bosnian territory between the Muslim-Croat federation and the Serbs.

The rebels may finally realize “that all extra deaths are useless at this point,” said Bogdan Denitch of City University of New York, a Croat-American and expert on the former Yugoslavia.

Until the latest offensive, rebel Serbs held about 70 percent of Bosnian territory. The new military advances have reduced that to about 60 percent.