BOSNIA: SARAJEVO: SERBIAN GENERAL FAILS TO ATTEND NATO TALKS скачать в хорошем качестве

BOSNIA: SARAJEVO: SERBIAN GENERAL FAILS TO ATTEND NATO TALKS

(19 Feb 1996) English/Nat A Bosnian Serb general has broken his promise to attend talks with top NATO commanders. The failure of the general to show up underlines the difficulty of getting Bosnian Serbs to comply with an agreement negotiated on their behalf by Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic. Admiral Leighton Smith had extended an invitation and laid on a plane to fly him to the Adriatic meeting aboard the USS Washington. But Bosnian Serb Major General Zdravko Tolimir failed to show up for the departure from Sarajevo airport today. The other guests, Gen Rasim Delic from the Bosnian Army and Maj General Zivko Budimir, the Bosnian Croat, were kept waiting for him. Delic and Budimir met with General Sir Michael Walker, commander of NATO ground troops in Bosnia, before their departure. The no-show of the Bosnian Serb General revealed once again how difficult it is to get Bosnian Serbs to comply with a peace accord they did not want, and which was negotiated for them by Milosevic. A U-S Navy C-2 plane took the military to the Adriatic. SOUNDBITE: (English) I'm expecting it is going to be a joint military commission style meeting in which the three army commanders will be present along with myself and the deputy commander I-FOR Admiral Smith and Mr Bildt. (Q: And General Tolimir confirmed his presence?) We are expecting General Tolimir to be there. SUPER CAPTION: Gen Sir Michael Walker But he wasn't. In the Adriatic they met U-S Admiral Leighton Smith, overall NATO commander for Bosnia, and Carl Bildt, top civilian official for the peace accord. Talks went ahead without Tolimir. Implementing the peace accord continues to be a major challenge for I-FOR, despite the impetus the Dayton accord was given by the meeting at Rome over the weekend. The head of the International Police Force briefed journalists on the handover of Serb-controlled suburbs of Sarajevo to the Muslim-led government. SOUNDBITE: (English) Let me start by saying that the transition will start on the 23rd of February. The transition will be a very gradual transition taking in one (suburb) at a time. The first (suburb) will be Vogosca. It is proposed that we will integrate the Federal police into that area starting at 6.00 a-m, the 23rd of February. SUPER CAPTION: Peter Fitzgerald, Commissioner for the International Police Force He made clear his wishes for a truly multi-ethnic force representing the local community in the future. SOUNDBITE: (English) The position is that as the (suburbs) are handed over, the Serbian police will cease to operate as a Serbian police force and they'll have the option of joining the Federation police and remaining in that area serving as Federation police. SUPER CAPTION: Peter Fitzgerald, Commissioner for the International Police Force The apprehension of suspected war criminals is another sensitive area. Photos of suspects are being circulated among I-FOR troops. SOUNDBITE: (English) You'll notice that they still only have a certain number of pictures that we've been provided. Otherwise it's a loose description. It goes somewhere towards showing a soldier how it might identify a war criminal if he comes across one in the course of his normal duty. SUPER CAPTION: Lt Col Mark Rayner, I-FOR These posters will be distributed to checkpoints and patrols in Bosnia making it harder for suspected war criminals to move around the country at will. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...