U.S. Troops at Risk Over Sarajevo, Serb Warns : Bosnia: Opposition to Muslim-Croat control of capital city mounts. Senior rebel leader says failure to guarantee security of Serbs in suburbs could imperil any peacekeeping force.

With Serbian protests mounting over the loss of the Bosnian capital city of Sarajevo, a senior Bosnian Serb leader warned Saturday that failure to resolve the issue could endanger American troops deployed to enforce peace in the Balkans.

For the second consecutive day, angry Serbs marched against a new, U.S.-brokered peace agreement that puts Serb-held Sarajevo suburbs under Muslim-Croat government control.

In another sign of resistance, a telegram purported to be from the powerful head of the Bosnian Serb army, Gen. Ratko Mladic, promised the demonstrating Sarajevo Serbs that the rebel army would never abandon them.

The opposition to the agreement negotiated in Dayton, Ohio, and signed by the presidents of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia and Croatia last week may not scuttle the entire peace process. But it does raise concerns about the expected deployment of about 60,000 NATO troops, including about 23,000 Americans.

A Bosnian Serb official considered a likely successor to leader and indicted war criminal Radovan Karadzic said in an interview that failure to guarantee the security of Serbs in Sarajevo could put the American forces at risk.

“No one can say how safe they’ll be until we settle Sarajevo,” said Nikola Koljevic, vice president of the self-declared Bosnian Serb Republic.

The potential danger of the Bosnia deployment has fueled the U.S. debate over whether the mission is wise and worthy. In a radio address Saturday, President Clinton attempted to bolster public support for the peace agreement and the U.S. military commitment, which he said could lead Bosnia “from horror to hope.”

“Without our support, the hard-won peace would be lost, the terrible slaughter would resume, the conflict that already has cost so many lives would spread like a cancer throughout the region,” Clinton said.

Mass executions, “ethnic cleansing” and campaigns of rape and terror have done “violence to the principles on which America stands,” he added.

In the Republican response to the address, Rep. Susan Molinari of New York called for a thorough discussion of the President’s plan.

“Our soldiers’ burdens will be to protect new boundaries drawn with the blood of innocent Bosnian men, women and children,” she said Saturday. “It is a difficult, difficult decision for tomorrow, affecting our world and our new world order.”

In marked contrast to his Bosnian Serb colleagues, Koljevic invited NATO deployment on territory held by the Bosnian Serbs, which becomes a legally recognized mini-state known as the Republika Srpska under the peace plan.

“It is very difficult to welcome NATO to Bosnia after having been bombed by the same military organization,” he said. “But if you explain [to Bosnian Serbs] that it is in NATO’s own interest to be impartial . . . that makes it easier to accept. If NATO is not deployed in Republika Srpska, it cannot show its evenhandedness.”

Koljevic, a Shakespearean scholar who has taught at several U.S. colleges, is considered a moderate alternative to the hard-line Karadzic.

He has been mentioned by diplomats and the state-controlled Belgrade press as a candidate to replace Karadzic, who under the Ohio peace pact will be barred from public office.

Karadzic and other Bosnian Serb leaders have opposed NATO deployment on their land, but now seem resigned to it.

The most explosive issue now, though, is Sarajevo, which the peace agreement transforms into a reunited capital by turning Serb-held suburbs over to Muslim-Croat government control.

The suburbs are home to 50,000 to 120,000 Serbs and to important factories and Sarajevo’s main water plant.

Amid cries of outrage from many of those Serbs who staged demonstrations Friday and Saturday, Koljevic and other Serb leaders said they expected that component of the agreement to be renegotiated before a formal signing ceremony in Paris. They contend that they were betrayed by Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, who negotiated on the Bosnian Serbs’ behalf.

Western diplomats here said it was unrealistic to expect substantial changes in the status given Sarajevo in the agreement, but that the Bosnian Serbs could demand better security guarantees for their people. Koljevic said such measures are important “as a first sign of international goodwill.”

The peace plan provides for up to 90 days of NATO protection in areas that are switched from the control of one side to another. Bosnian Serb leaders want that period extended--Karadzic even spoke of a five-year commitment--but U.S. officials are reluctant to allow their forces to be dragged into a long-term policing mission.

Serbs in Sarajevo’s suburbs protested bitterly Saturday, waving identification cards to show they were born in the capital and displaying banners honoring “our Serbian Sarajevo.”

Many vowed to fight to the death, or to burn down their houses before submitting to Muslim-Croat rule.

“I would rather die in Ilidza [a Serb-held suburb] than a refugee camp,” one young soldier told Belgrade radio.

The status granted Sarajevo in the peace agreement far exceeded the expectations of U.S. negotiators, and Milosevic--keen to have international economic sanctions lifted from the rump Yugoslavia--was reported to have made the last-minute concession hurriedly and to the surprise of most participants in the talks.

The swirling resistance now, however, calls into question Milosevic’s ability to deliver the Bosnian Serbs, which is the crux of the Clinton Administration’s belief that the agreement can work.

Another lingering question is the fate of Karadzic and Mladic, both indicted twice by a U.N. war crimes tribunal at The Hague for alleged atrocities.

Mladic has not been seen in public since before the accords were initialed Tuesday.

Karadzic, in a televised appearance Friday night, sounded a defiant note when he said that “only the Serbian people” can choose their leaders. He said he and Mladic plan to attend the peace-treaty signing ceremony in Paris next month--even though both risk arrest under international law if they leave their homeland.

Milosevic, who usually pulls the strings of power in this region, has sought to build up a faction of Bosnian Serbs that rivals Karadzic’s followers. He is also said to favor Koljevic, who a Western diplomat described as a palatable choice because he presents “a Westernized face.”

Koljevic, 59, speaks excellent English and entered politics after the 1980 death of his son, who froze on Mt. Igman during a winter climb. The death plunged Koljevic into Orthodox religion, which in turn took him to Serbian nationalism.

He has maintained a lower profile than some of the other leaders and, according to one diplomat, has not been linked directly to war crimes.

* DOLE’S DILEMMA: Sen. Bob Dole faces a conflict on support for Bosnia plan. A24