Road Gets Easier For Nato Troops Fresh Load Of Gravel Eases Sava River Crossing

Army engineers spent New Year’s Day dumping gravel on a mud-slick bank of the Sava River, securing the way for U.S. tanks and fighting vehicles lined up and waiting to cross the new bridge into Bosnia.

More than 100 American vehicles crossed the span on Sunday after engineers finished the pontoon bridge. Flooding from rain and melting snow had delayed construction, and on Monday the same elements muddied a strip of land where engineers feared vehicles could get stuck.

The army built the bridge in two parts: The first covers the river and the second covers a flood plain on the Croatian side. In between is an ever-muddier stretch of dirt. Trucks dumped gravel there, and military vehicles smoothed it, firming up the route.

About 75 vehicles crossed on Monday, and about 100 more were expected to cross today - armored vehicles, field artillery transports and other vehicles, some of them already in line to go.

Eventually, most of the 20,000 American soldiers taking part in the NATO peace-enforcing mission will have to cross the bridge to reach U.S. headquarters around the northeastern Bosnian city of Tuzla.

“The bridge is holding up well,” said Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Jim McPherson.

Overall, Bosnia enjoyed a quiet New Year’s. Apart from one reported incident, it seemed the only gunfire came from jubilant soldiers shooting into the air.

Croat police in the city of Mostar, in southwestern Bosnia, shot at a car with license plates from the Muslim half of the city, killing Alen Muftovic, an 18-year-old Muslim man.

He was with three other young men who drove into the Croat-held side of town. Croat police fired at the car after it failed to stop when they chased it. The incident was likely to heighten tensions further in the divided city.

Wartime suspicions were evident, too, in a Serb-held village in northern Bosnia, where police detained an Associated Press reporter and photographer because their car had Croatian license plates.

Police released them unharmed after a senior Serb police official explained that the route they were using is under NATO patrol and should be open for such traffic.

Under the peace agreement signed in Paris on Dec. 14, there must be complete freedom of movement across Bosnia by Jan. 19. By that date, Serb, Croat and Bosnia forces are to have pulled back 2-1/2 miles from front lines and NATO forces are to be patrolling there.

Army doctors said the first U.S. casualty, 23-year-old military policeman Spc. Martin John Begosh, was making good progress. He suffered leg and foot injuries when his vehicle struck a snow-covered mine Saturday during a reconnaissance patrol in northern Bosnia.

While many people on the Bosnian government side of front lines had reason to view 1996 with hope, tens of thousands in Serb-held parts of Sarajevo were apprehensive at best about what the new year has in store for them.

Under the peace agreement, the Bosnian Serb army has to pull out of Sarajevo beginning in the first week of February, and the city is to be reunited under Bosnian government control by March 19.

Many Serbs fear reprisals for nearly 3-1/2 years of shelling and bombing by their army’s gunners, who surrounded the city.

After the war started in April 1992, Sarajevo saw suffering and destruction that left more than 12,000 dead or missing. Across Bosnia, at least 200,000 people were killed or disappeared.

Tensions have begun to ease and patches of normal life have reappeared as a 60,000-strong NATO force fans out to police the peace.

With electricity back in most areas, warm lights dotted the devastated cityscape of Sarajevo as residents gathered in apartments, bars and cafes to toast the new year.

In the center of town, neighbors and friends shook hands and embraced, wishing each other better fortune in 1996.

Meanwhile, at the U.S. Army’s command tent near Zupanja, two local men appeared with a bottle of potent plum brandy to share with the GIs.

“It’s good medicine. It will cure anything,” said 31-year-old Mato Djurdjov. He said the plum brandy was “not for generals - for normal soldiers.”

The GIs refrained, saying they were on duty.