IFOR: YESTERDAY'S TRAM ATTACK - ISOLATED TERRORIST ATACK

SARAJEVO, Jan 10 (Hina) - Yesterday's attack on a tram in Sarajevo which killed one and wounded 19 persons was an isolated terrorist act, IFOR spokesman in Sarajevo Marc Reiner told today's press conference, adding IFOR hoped that such incidents would not jeopardise the implementation of the military part of the peace agreement. NATO soldiers had to respond to such attacks, but they were not a police force and they could not patrol each street, Reiner said. #L# IFOR's first task was to secure that all sides put their armies and weapons back into barracks so that civil authorities could carry out their tasks without military threats, Colonel Reiner said, warning that such terrorist acts were actually very difficult to prevent. Armed elements on the Bosnian Serb side, which were not under Bosnian Serb army control, were responsible for yesterday's attack, Reiner stressed, adding that IFOR representatives had talked immediately after the incident with Bosnian Serb representatives who promised to abide by the peace agreement. Spokesman for the French IFOR brigade, which in charge of the Sarajevo area, Brigadier Richard Pernod, confirmed that NATO troops had encircled and searched through the area where the attack came from. The French IFOR soldiers, who returned fire from 20-mm cannons and heavy machine-guns, discovered that the 64-mm projectile, which hit the tram, had been fired from one of the four residential buildings located on the very bank of the Miljacka river. IFOR members and commander of the French brigade, General Louis Zeller, did not find the attackers while they were searching the buildings. French forces have nevertheless intensified patrols through the suburb of Grbavica, and a larger number of IFOR armoured transporter vehicles have been positioned around the 'Holiday Inn' Hotel. (hina) rm 101402 MET jan 96