NATO Officer Takes to TV to Reassure Bosnian Serbs

The commander of NATO forces in Bosnia went on Bosnian Serb television Tuesday to try to convince Serbs that the alliance will not be biased against them in implementing the country’s peace deal.

“The principle we operate on is one of complete evenhandedness across the board,” U.S. Adm. Leighton W. Smith told his interviewer in a 90-minute live appearance from studios in the separatist Serb stronghold of Pale, outside Sarajevo. “Our goal is to establish a feeling of security across this entire country.”

The appearance was part of a campaign to inform local people of the mission of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which is enforcing a peace agreement among the rival factions in Bosnia.

Smith took questions phoned in from around the republic. He was asked why NATO wants to arrest Bosnian Serb leaders indicted for war crimes, if NATO will rebuild the bridges its planes destroyed and if NATO will help transport Serbs’ possessions.

There was no mention during the well-mannered discussion of the disappearance of 16 civilians the government says were abducted by separatist Serbs in a Serb-held suburb.