December 10, 1995
Web posted at: 10:40 p.m. EST (0340 GMT)
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (CNN) -- Bosnian Serbs ignored a French-imposed deadline Sunday night to release two French pilots shot down over Bosnia in August, or provide information on their whereabouts. But the French government has insisted that Thursday's signing of the Dayton peace accord in Paris would proceed, despite calls by the families of the two pilots to postpone it.
"It's out of the question to sign the Bosnia peace treaty when our husbands have not been returned," said Isabelle Souvignet, the wife of missing pilot Jose Souvignet.
The French government, which had not detailed the consequences if the pilots were not returned, refused comment as the deadline passed Sunday night. But the French newspaper Le Monde reported Saturday that France may reimpose sanctions on the Serbs it has already lifted if the pilots are not returned. The paper also reported that some details of the signing could be adversely affected if the pilots are not returned.
A delay in the signing of the Dayton accord would be devastating, Bosnian Prime Minister Haris Silajdzic said Sunday.
"It would be the beginning of the end of Dayton," he said, adding that a postponement would "endanger the whole peace process."
"I don't believe that it should be or would be postponed," he said, "but of course we understand that the French government is worried about the fate of its two pilots."
The passing of France's deadline, however, did not slow the arrival of advance troops into the Balkans in preparation for the 60,000-member NATO peacekeeping force. That multi- national force is expected to begin arriving in the region over the weekend after Thursday's signing of the Dayton accord.
Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic appeared ready to accept portions of the accord he had earlier deemed unacceptable. Speaking to the Bosnian Serb news agency, Karadzic said that the 3 1/2-year war "will come to a definite end" when the accord is signed in Paris.
"We want peace despite some painful compromises we had to accept," Karadzic said, referring to the requirement that Sarajevo be reunited under Bosnian control.
Russian Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev tried to pave the way for Karadzic to attend the signing without risking arrest, asking the U.N. tribunal on war crimes to suspend proceedings against him. But the tribunal flatly refused.
"No way, just no way," said tribunal spokesman Christian Chartier. "It's completely impossible. That will not happen."
And while the lion's share of attention was focused on Bosnia, some diplomats warned that a similar ethnic conflict could re-emerge in Croatia if Croatia and Serbia cannot come to terms in Paris on normalizing relations between the two countries.
Croatian Serbs seized almost one third of Croatia -- Eastern Slavonia -- in 1991. The region's importance for farming, oil and transportation is vital to both Serbs and Croats.
Croatian President Franjo Tudjman reluctantly approved provisions in the Dayton accord that called for an international body to handle Eastern Slavonia's demilitarization and eventual reincorporation with Croatia. But many Croats believe the Croatian army could have and should have accomplished that task.
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