NATO Kills Bosnian Serb Sniper; GIs Hurt by Mine

On the eve of the withdrawal of Serbian troops from Sarajevo suburbs, French special forces patrolling those districts Thursday killed a suspected sniper in response to a surge in sniper attacks, NATO said.

And the war-legacy plague of land mines continued to claim victims: Two American soldiers were injured when one stepped on an antipersonnel mine as they inspected a minefield that had been identified as cleared.

The Americans were on a joint inspection with Bosnian Serb soldiers about 10 miles southeast of Tuzla, headquarters for U.S. forces assigned to the NATO-led peace mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Both were in stable condition.

One was identified late Thursday as 2nd Lt. Robert E. Washburn; neither his hometown nor the identity of the other soldier was immediately available.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization also reported it scrambled warplanes to force a group of about 30 Bosnian government soldiers to drop a large cache of weapons they were transporting inside a demilitarized zone. Wednesday’s incident was the first use of close-air support by NATO since the peace operation began.

After a tense, hourlong standoff while two U.S. A-10 “tank-busters” buzzed overhead, the Bosnians agreed to disarm, and NATO ground troops destroyed the weapons.

The transfer of Serbian areas of the Bosnian capital to Muslim-Croat control is set to begin this weekend, but key confidence-building measures that might prevent an exodus of frightened Serbs are still not in place.

Under a peace accord brokered in Dayton, Ohio, Bosnian Serb military forces must withdraw from Serb-held Sarajevo suburbs by midnight tonight; Muslim-Croat forces will be allowed to enter in about 45 days. Similarly, Bosnian government forces must vacate areas under their control that are being turned over to the Serbs. A NATO spokesman, Lt. Col. Mark Rayner, said most of the troops have withdrawn ahead of the deadline.

The impending transfer has triggered panic among many Serbs around Sarajevo, who fear retaliation from Muslims who endured 43 months of siege by Bosnian Serb rebels. Thousands have fled. Others are waiting to see what happens.

But the international police force that many Bosnians are counting on to protect them is at a fraction of its required strength, and an all-important amnesty law languishes unratified.

“I am very concerned about the slow progress on this,” said Nedzeljko Prstojevic, the mayor of Ilidza, one of the suburbs that will be handed over. “By not defining the status of Sarajevo, there is a danger of accidents.”

Ilidza, just west of Sarajevo, has been the scene of at least six sniper attacks in the past four days. American and British NATO vehicles came under fire Wednesday night, after the shootings earlier of an American soldier, who was hit in the neck, and a British peacekeeper. NATO blamed the shootings on Bosnian Serb soldiers unhappy with the transfer.

In response, French special forces mounted an anti-sniping operation Thursday in the Ilidza area, shooting dead one gunman and apprehending another, a NATO spokesman said.

Earlier in Washington, the commander of NATO’s Bosnia operation, U.S. Adm. Leighton W. Smith, said the shootings would not be tolerated.

“We’ve got some jerk up there pulling a trigger, and he’s got a night scope and that makes it tough,” Smith told a meeting of defense reporters.

But “people who snipe at our forces are at great risk to themselves. If we see somebody pointing a weapon at our forces, he will be attacked without warning.”

Both U.S. Ambassador to Bosnia John Menzies and British Lt. Gen. Michael Walker, the commander of NATO ground forces here, met with the two ranking Bosnian Serb leaders who are not indicted war criminals--Momcilo Krajisnik and Nikola Koljevic--and warned them against additional shootings.

Persuading the Sarajevo Serbs to remain in their homes would help the Bosnian government promote an image of ethnic tolerance while averting another massive refugee crisis.

Central to security for the Serbs, as well as for Muslims and Croats who may want to visit the Sarajevo suburbs, is the U.N.-sponsored International Police Task Force that will monitor and train local civilian police. But in the Serb-controlled suburbs, only 40 are in place in a planned deployment of up to 500, said U.N. spokesman Alexander Ivanko.

In Ilidza, at the newly opened international civilian police station in a converted restaurant, earnest French gendarmes were unpacking note pads and other supplies Thursday after confessing to a state of general chaos.

“It’s a crazy situation,” said one of the officers who had been in Bosnia for less than two weeks. “Everything is uncertain, and no one knows what’s going on.”

But in one of the most encouraging signs since peace began to take hold in Bosnia, dozens of civilians crossed a bridge that connects government-held Sarajevo with the closest Serb-held district, Grbavica.

French troops removed barricades from the Brotherhood and Unity Bridge on Tuesday, and on Thursday, for the first time since war began in April 1992, residents were allowed to cross freely.

Times staff writers Elizabeth Shogren in Tuzla and Art Pine in Washington contributed to this report.