Last Bosnian War Territorial Issue Settled

An international decision to take sole control of this strategic northern town from Bosnian Serbs has become final, Bosnia’s international overseers said Thursday.

In March, American arbitrator Roberts Owen took away sole control from the Bosnian Serb administration and declared Brcko would henceforth be governed jointly by Serbs and the Muslim-Croat Federation.

Owen gave the two parties five months to submit counterproposals on the town’s status. The deadline was Wednesday.

The status of Brcko, a bitterly contested town, was the only territorial issue left unresolved in the 1995 Dayton peace agreement that ended the 3 1/2-year Bosnian war.

Bosnian Serbs insisted on maintaining control because Brcko is on a narrow corridor linking Serb-held lands in the east and west of the country. The Muslim-Croat Federation wanted access to the river and rail facilities.

The federation also wanted the thousands of mostly Muslim refugees to be able to return to their homes.

Owen twice postponed a decision on Brcko’s future because of the sensitivity of the issue and the strong claims by both sides.

Brcko was predominantly Muslim before the war, but Bosnian Serb forces overran it in the spring of 1992, forcing the town’s Muslims and Croats to flee.

After the international decision in March, hundreds of Bosnian Serbs demonstrated in the Serbianpart of the country, refusing to accept its neutrality.

The protests eventually died down.