SERBS BOYCOTT PEACE MEETINGS IN SARAJEVO

SARAJEVO, Jan 17 (Hina) - Bosnian Serb representatives did not appear at meetings of joint civilian commissions for the implementation of peace agreements, that were held in Sarajevo on Tuesday and Wednesday. A German diplomat, Michael Steiner, deputy to the High Representative Carl Bildt, told reporters today that Bosnian Serb leaders had informed Bildt's Office that they would not participate in talks on the implementation of peace deals, unless they were allowed to continue controlling the Sarajevo suburbs until next September elections. #L# Steiner believed that local Serb officials from the volatile Serb-held Sarajevo suburbs were willing to take part in the work of the commissions, but being under strong pressure of Bosnian Serb leaders at Pale they had to abandon the participation. At Pale, outside Sarajevo, Bosnian Serb leaders including Radovan Karadzic held sessions in the last two days, and the Pale television broadcast that the sessions were devoted to the situation in the Serb-held Sarajevo suburbs. The boycott of further contacts with the international community and the Bosnian Government resulted from decisions of those sessions which were trying to postpone hand-over of the suburbs to the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina. (hina) mm mms 171945 MET jan 96