Ties With Serbs Not Restored Yet, NATO Says

NATO officials said Thursday that contacts have still not been reestablished with top Bosnian Serb military leaders, despite assurances last weekend in Rome that the boycott would end.

The continued lack of cooperation from the Serbs, described by NATO commanders as a serious breach of the Dayton, Ohio, peace accord, led to an ultimatum by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization on Thursday: Resume required ties within 48 hours or economic sanctions will not be eased.

“What we are hoping is that the commitment that everybody showed to the Rome agreement will now be carried through,” said British Lt. Gen. Michael Walker in an interview. “It isn’t. We can see that clearly.”

The tough stance came just a day after the NATO command here issued a statement that it will recommend to the North Atlantic Council, the governing body of the Atlantic alliance, that the Bosnian Serbs be deemed in general compliance with military aspects of the peace accord.

Such an assessment is necessary for economic sanctions against the Bosnian Serbs, imposed near the beginning of the 3 1/2-year war, to be suspended by the U.N. Security Council. Negotiators in Rome pledged to have the sanctions discontinued as an incentive for greater Bosnian Serb cooperation.

But Walker, who commands NATO ground forces in Bosnia-Herzegovina, said the statement of compliance has been put on hold until the 48-hour deadline passes and NATO determines whether military contacts have been reinstated. The issue is so serious, he said, that lack of cooperation in that one area--despite general Bosnian Serb fulfillment of other provisions--will result in a recommendation that sanctions remain intact.

The continuing tug of war with the Bosnian Serbs has frustrated NATO’s top commanders, who were left standing Monday on the deck of a U.S. aircraft carrier waiting--in vain--for Bosnian Serb Maj. Gen. Zdravko Tolimir to show up for a so-called joint commission meeting of Muslim, Croat and Serb military commanders from Bosnia.

Walker swallowed his pride and traveled the next day to Pale, the Bosnian Serb headquarters outside Sarajevo, to meet privately with Tolimir to sort things out. But Tolimir remained circumspect.

Walker said in the interview that the trip to Pale was his last.

“I told him I am not going to come running after you anymore,” he said. “It will be more painful to you rather than us because I will continue to run the military commissions . . . and I will use my authority . . . to make decisions which I will then impose upon the Serbs.”

Walker said it has become clear in sessions with Tolimir that Gen. Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb military leader indicted on war crimes, is still running military operations.

Under the Dayton accord, NATO does not officially recognize Mladic’s authority because of the charges against him, thereby elevating Tolimir to the position of No. 1 contact.

In Sarajevo, meanwhile, a presidential spokesman announced that Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic, 70, had been hospitalized because of “sudden problems with his heart.”

The spokesman said the condition is not life threatening.