SARAJEVO, Feb 3 (Hina) - During today's visit of US Secretary of State Warren Christopher to Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina's Government pledged to free immediately all remaining POWs detained by the (Moslem-led) Government and promised
that all foreign troops would leave the country.
SARAJEVO, Feb 3 (Hina) - During today's visit of US Secretary of
State Warren Christopher to Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina's
Government pledged to free immediately all remaining POWs detained
by the (Moslem-led) Government and promised that all foreign
troops would leave the country. #L#
After two-hour talks with Christopher, President Alija
Izetbegovic told reporters that they had discussed the release of
five Serbs from the prison in Gorazde. Izetbegovic warned that this
issue should not be separated from the problem of a huge number of
missing people, particularly of those who went missing when
Srebrenica was overrun by Serbs.
The US Secretary of State proposed that this problem may be
solved through mediation of a special working group of the
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). His proposal was
accepted.
Izetbegovic stressed that it was very important that the
United States was ready to support investigations of war crimes in
Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Izetbegovic added that the Bosnian state leadership and the US
Secretary of State had agreed on the assessment that implementation
of the military part of the peace accord was progressing well,
whereas there were some obstacles in implementation of the civilian
part.
The Bosnian-Herzegovinian side was especially dissatisfied
with the fact that Serb policemen would remain in Sarajevo suburbs,
which should be retaken by the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina by
March 19. Izetbegovic said Carl Bildt was responsible for that
decision, and noticed that the Bosnian Government would like that
in the next 45 days international police force be in those
outskirts of Sarajevo.
Christopher said the U.S.A. would continue offering support to
Bosnia-Herzegovina and its people, as the U.S.A. believed that the
future of Bosnia laid in values of the West. However, the future
depends, first of all, on the full implementation of the Dayton
accord, he added. He also said he was pleased with the cooperation
of all parties in the implementation of the agreement so far.
Christopher said that his country would help all sides in
order to create open society in Bosnia, and added that they were
aware this would be a difficult task because of all suffering
caused by the war.
He told his Sarajevo hosts that all countries in the former
Yugoslavia would be asked to fully cooperate with the International
War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague, and added that this question
would be raised at talks in Belgrade, as it had been during the
talks in Zagreb.
After he had finished official talks in the Presidency of
Bosnia-Herzegovina, Christopher met separately the President of the
Bosnian Federation, Kresimir Zubak, and Haris Silajdzic in the US
Embassy in Sarajevo. Presently Christopher conducted talks with the
international community's High Representative for implementation of
the peace accord, Carl Bildt.
(hina) mms
031729 MET feb 96