French Disagree on Plan to Free Serbs’ Prisoners

Foreign Minister Roland Dumas’ proposal to send French-led military convoys into Bosnia to liberate prisoners in Serb-held camps met with mixed reaction Monday inside and outside the French government.

In a radio interview, Dumas said France is willing to act alone, if necessary, with its military forces to liberate camps in Serb-held territories of former Yugoslavia. He discussed the plan Monday with Minister of Health and Humanitarian Action Bernard Kouchner, a veteran of dozens of international humanitarian missions, whom Dumas nominated to lead the rescue effort.

Dr. Kouchner said he will travel to Yugoslav territory in the next few days to study a rescue mission, which he said would concentrate first on freeing women prisoners in the camps.

But other members of the French government, notably Defense Minister Pierre Joxe, reacted coolly to Dumas’ initiative. A Defense Ministry spokesman interpreted the Dumas proposal as “an expression of political will” by the foreign minister, noting that only French President Francois Mitterrand has the constitutional power to engage French troops on foreign soil.

In a television appearance Monday night, Joxe said he opposes a lone-wolf action on the part of France, which has 5,000 troops deployed with U.N. forces in the region. “These actions should have an international character in their military dimension,” Joxe said, blaming the controversy over Dumas’ statements on a “misinterpretation” by the press.

While Mitterrand made no immediate comment on the proposal, U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali urged France to “work within the framework of the United Nations” before attempting any independent military action.

Dumas, frustrated by what he called the “unbearable, untenable” situation in Bosnia, contended that military action against the Serbian prison camps was already authorized by a Dec. 18 U.N. resolution, written by France, that called for closing the detention camps.

“The legal and diplomatic situation is clear,” said Dumas. “Nothing now blocks convoys, escorted by protection forces, from traveling to the camps and liberating them.”

His comments came at a time of acute military embarrassment for France. French Gen. Philippe Morillon was in command of U.N. forces in Sarajevo on Friday when Serbian militiamen stopped a U.N. convoy and assassinated Bosnian Deputy Prime Minister Hakija Turajlic. Another French officer, Col. Partrice Sartre, was in command of the convoy.

Morillon, a decorated French officer, took personal responsibility for the United Nations’ failure to protect Turajlic. “It’s clear that certain supplementary precautions should have been taken,” Morillon told reporters in Sarajevo.

The assassination was doubly embarrassing for the French government because it came on the eve of a state visit to Paris by Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic.

His government on Monday asked the United Nations to replace Morillon and the head of U.N. troops in Sarajevo, Gen. Hussein Abdel-Razek, saying it had lost confidence in the men, Reuters news agency reported.

In Geneva, Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, who was attending U.N.-sponsored peace talks on Bosnia, denied the continued existence of concentration camps in Serb-held territory. “We have liberated all our prisoners,” Karadzic said. “But the Croats and the Muslims have not done the same.”

The Associated Press also reported that Karadzic dropped demands Monday for a separate Serb state in Bosnia, in a concession coinciding with the first appearance at peace talks by hard-line Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic.

Karadzic’s decision could pave the way for a power-sharing pact among Bosnia’s Serbs, Muslims and Croats, who have battled for 10 months in a civil war that has claimed at least 17,000 lives.

Milosevic also appeared willing to consider peace plans by special envoys Cyrus R. Vance of the United Nations and Lord Owen of the European Community.

DOCTOR WITH A FLAIR: France’s Kouchner spearheaded Somalia aid. World Report