BOSNIA: PRELUDE TO THE PEACE CEREMONY : Serbs in Sarajevo Suburbs Vote on Government Rule : Bosnia: ‘No’ seems the certain choice as residents register their opposition to new peace accord.

Residents of the Serb-held suburbs surrounding Sarajevo braved a blizzard Tuesday and voted on whether they want to be ruled by their enemy, the Muslim-led Bosnian government.

Few doubted that the results of the referendum would be a firm “no,” and preliminary returns reported on Bosnian Serb television confirmed that.

The real point of Tuesday’s exercise for many Sarajevo Serbs was to register their opposition to a peace agreement that they believe sacrifices their homes, interests and welfare.

The peace plan, to be signed in Paris on Thursday and enforced by 60,000 NATO peacekeeping troops, divides Bosnia-Herzegovina in two but unifies Sarajevo, the capital, by restoring nine Serb-held districts to government control.

Here in Ilidza, the mayor, Nedjeljko Prstojevic, was a midday voter. Wearing green camouflage fatigues and a pistol on his hip, the silver-haired mayor said the world has ignored the Serbs of Sarajevo.

“No one can speak for us,” he said. “For us the main thing is what do the people think, what do they feel and what do they want. . . . If [the peace agreement] is not implemented fairly, there will probably be big trouble. We will have to use our right of self-defense and our right to organize ourselves.”

One man was observed voting four times. The votes were cast on behalf of his parents, a son and himself, according to election officials who said it was an acceptable practice.

Many Serbs have threatened everything from a mass exodus to a scorched-earth form of guerrilla warfare if they are forced to pledge allegiance to the Bosnian government. But they mostly seem confused about their future and the few alternatives available to them.

“I’m 100% sure the Serbs will stay here regardless of NATO. But what happens later? Tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, a year from now? I don’t know,” said Mitar Krajisnik, 65, a retired computer programmer, as he cast his ballot. “But there will never be peace until it is our land again. Never.”

The Bosnian Serb leadership, until now notorious for the restrictions it places on foreign journalists, has shifted gears and for the last couple of weeks has welcomed coverage of the Serbs of Sarajevo.

The leaders are keen to force changes in the peace accord, which effectively pushes their center of power to the northern city of Banja Luka and away from Pale, a Sarajevo-area town that is the base of Radovan Karadzic, the Bosnian Serb leader and an indicted war criminal.

U.S. officials and international mediators say there will be no changes in the agreement.

Nevertheless, the anger of these Serbs could undermine the peace process.

“My oldest son was killed by the Muslims,” cried Vukica Radojevic, 81, as she waited to vote with tears pouring down her wrinkled cheeks. “We will fight again to protect what is ours!”

Stojanka Bulic, a 60-year-old homemaker, described Bill Clinton as her “mortal enemy” and, echoing comments repeated throughout the day, also vowed to fight for “what is ours.”

“If war continues, let it continue,” Bulic said. “If [my son] is killed, let him be killed. He will be killed defending the Serb Republic. That is what is most dear to us.”

Serbs seized these suburbs at the beginning of the war, in 1992, and most Muslims fled. Ever since, the suburbs have effectively cut off the besieged center of Sarajevo from the rest of the world. About 70,000 people live in these districts, according to U.N. officials. Serb leaders put the number at twice that.

The question on the light-green ballot, written in the Serbs’ Cyrillic alphabet, was: “Are you for Serbian Sarajevo to become a part of the territory of the BH [Bosnia-Herzegovina] Federation Muslim-Croat entity and to come under its state authority?”

Voters circled an affirmative or a negative response.

Efforts by U.N. and international officials to reassure the Serbs that their rights will be respected appear not to have alleviated the fear by much. And statements by Bosnian government leaders have served only to fan their anxieties.

“We are not bad people. We are respectable people. We want peace, but those people over there don’t want it. They want Islam, for their women to be veiled, to wear head scarves,” said a woman dressed in a red winter coat who did not want her name used. Most of her family was killed in the war.

“They don’t want us. They want our Serb lands but without Serbs.”