SARAJEVO, Nov 11 (Hina) - Gen. Zdravko Tolimir, one of Gen. Mladic's closest associates, met IFOR's Gen. Michael Walker on Monday. Gen. Tolimir was dismissed last week by the new president of the Serb entity, Biljana Plavsic,
together with his boss Ratko Mladic.
SARAJEVO, Nov 11 (Hina) - Gen. Zdravko Tolimir, one of Gen.
Mladic's closest associates, met IFOR's Gen. Michael Walker on
Monday.
Gen. Tolimir was dismissed last week by the new president of
the Serb entity, Biljana Plavsic, together with his boss Ratko
Mladic. #L#
Spokesman for the Implementation Force, Brat Boudreau, declied
to comment on speculations that the objective of Tolimir's visit
had been to ask IFOR commanders not to recognise the new military
command of Republika Srpska appointed by Plavsic.
"We have been cooperating with Gen. Tolimir all this time,"
Boudreau said when asked to explain the visit. He confirmed that
IFOR Commander Gen. William Crouch would meet Plavsic at Pale today
to discuss the latest changes in the Bosnian Serb military.
"We cannot comment on these changes at this moment - we are
considering them as an internal affair of Bosnian Serbs," Boudreau
said.
Meanwhile, IFOR was certain that weapons and troops had
remained in the arms depots and barracks where they belonged,
according to Boudreau.
Still, the IFOR command was in contact by telephone with the
dismissed supreme command in Han Pijesak.
Spokesman for the international peace coordinator Collum
Murphy said on Monday Carl Bildt and his associates accepted Gen.
Pero Colic as the new chief-of-staff and intented to cooperate with
him. Bildt's deputy Michael Steiner and his chief military advisor
Gen. Bertrand de Lapresle had been officially notified of the
changes in the Bosnian Serb military command.
At a meeting with de Lapresle on Saturday, Colic said the new
command would be based in Pale. A group of generals based in Han
Pijesak had no authority whatsoever over the Bosnian Serb army.
(hina) mm as
111348 MET nov 96