February 20, 1996

Muslims to Take Sarajevo Suburb Sooner Than Expected

By STEPHEN KINZER

OGOSCA, Bosnia-Herzegovina -- United Nations officials announced on Monday that police from the Muslim-dominated government will move into this Serbian suburb of Sarajevo on Friday, weeks earlier than most residents here had expected.

Since the fate of these Serbian-held suburbs was decided in the Dayton peace accords last fall, the prospect of the government taking control has already caused thousands of Serbs to flee Vogosca and other suburbs. More were preparing to flee on Monday, choosing to abandon their homes rather than face the prospect of being ruled by forces who were the enemy until just months ago.

Under the peace accord negotiated last November, all traditionally Serbian areas around Sarajevo are to revert to government control by March 19. The accord also guarantees that innocent Serbs who remain in these areas will be treated well, but few people here believe it.

"If we stay, they will arrest us or maybe kill us," asserted Gligor Sikiras, 50, as he sipped a drink in a local cafe, perhaps for the last time. "I'm not going to wait for that."

The transition will be phased in one area at a time, beginning with Vogosca, Peter Fitzgerald, an Irish U.N. official who heads the International Police Task Force here, said on Monday. By March 19, 545 Bosnian police officers are to have completed their move into Serbian-held suburbs.

Fitzgerald said that the government police forces will be under the "strict supervision" of 300 U.N. officers recruited from police forces in Ireland, Jordan, Denmark, Poland, Sweden, and other countries. They are to accompany government police during searches, ride with them on patrols, supervise them when they make arrests, and monitor the treatment of any prisoners they take.

Serbian police officers now serving in the suburbs have been offered the chance to join the new force, but Fitzgerald said he doubted any would agree to do so.

In another sign of the resentment many Bosnian Serbs feel in the wake of the Dayton accord, the deputy commander of the Bosnian Serb army, Gen. Zdravko Tolimir, failed on Monday to turn up at the Sarajevo airport for a helicopter flight to a negotiating session aboard an American naval vessel anchored in the Adriatic. The commander of the NATO force charged with implementing the accord, Adm. Leighton W. Smith, called his absence unconscionable and "not very smart."

In Vogosca on Monday, the streets had a ghostly feel. Many of the 10,000 people who lived here a few weeks ago have already left, some of them taking windows, doors, and other furnishings with them. Bosnian Serb officials have helped move them to Serbian-controlled regions.

"The Parliament of the Serbian part of Sarajevo has decided to recommend to the people not to stay," Bosnian Serb spokesman Dragan Bozanic said in an interview. "They have decided that they are not going to find any solution within the Bosnian Federation."

Bosnian government officials have sought to assure Serbs in the Sarajevo suburbs that they have nothing to fear from the new police force and the civilian authorities who will follow them. Architects of the peace accord have also urged them to stay.

"Their freedom will be respected," Assistant Secretary of State Richard C. Holbrooke pledged on Sunday at the conclusion of the meetings in Rome attended by top leaders of all Bosnian factions. "They do not need to leave Sarajevo."

U.N. and NATO forces on Monday began distributing leaflets bearing that message. They include a verse written by the 19th-century Serbian poet Aleksa Santic which translates roughly as: "Stay here. The sun that shines over a foreign place will never warm you like the sun in your own land."

Most people in Vogosca appear unmoved by these appeals. It is inconceivable to them that after more than three years of war, forces of the Muslim-led government will respect their rights.

At the local police station, Serbian officers were preparing to leave town before their replacements arrive. Their chief, Jovan Maunaga, 38, sitting under a Serbian emblem and a painting of St. Michael in the pose of a warrior, laughed at promises that Serbs who remain will be treated fairly.

"Too much blood has been shed on both sides," Maunaga said. "If we could have some influence here we would stay, but it isn't going to be that way." He estimated that 60 percent of Vogosca residents had already fled.

Under plans announced on Monday, government police officers and foreign monitors will move into Vogosca at 6 a.m. on Friday and then spread out into other suburbs. They are to take control of Ilijas on Feb. 29, Hadzici on March 6, Ilidza and Trnovo on March 12, and Novo Sarajevo and Stari Grad on March 19.

A handful of foreign police officers wearing U.N. uniforms arrived in Vogosca on Sunday, but they have not yet begun patrolling the streets.

Some of Vogosca's Serbs have not yet been convinced by warnings of how terrible their lives may become after government police take control here. Vlada Krsman, 73, said she is afraid to remain in her apartment house because all but two of the apartments have been abandoned. But when asked how she would feel if Muslims moved in, she replied: "That would be great. It would be wonderful."

Most, however, shared the bitterness of a 23-year-old veteran named Drazen Terzic, who is planning to leave on Wednesday.

"We'll come back," Terzic vowed. "We were driven out politically, but we'll come back militarily."