December 26, 1995
Web posted at: 2:20 p.m. EST (1920 GMT)
PALE, Bosnia-Herzegovina (CNN) -- NATO commander Adm. Leighton Smith has rejected a Bosnian Serb request that withdrawal of their troops from Sarajevo be postponed. In his first meeting ever with senior Bosnian Serb leaders Tuesday, Smith stuck to the terms of the original peace agreement, which stipulates that the Bosnian Serbs must leave the city in February.
Smith said, however, that he might consider extending the withdrawal deadline in the future. Bosnian Serb leaders said their troops need an extra seven months to completely withdraw from the capital.
Smith conferred in Pale with the speaker of the Serb "parliament," Momcilo Krajisnik, to discuss terms for enforcing the peace accord negotiated in Dayton, Ohio, last month. Krajisnik is a member of the three-man Bosnian Serb leadership headed by leader Radovan Karadzic.
Smith avoided contact with Karadzic and Gen. Ratko Mladic, both of whom have been indicted on charges of genocide by a U.N. war crimes tribunal. They are subject to arrest on sight by troops of the NATO-led Implementation Force (IFOR) assigned to keep the peace in Bosnia.
Smith "does not wish to meet Mr. Karadzic or General Mladic," said a spokesman for the force, Maj. Simon Haselock.
NATO spokesman Capt. Mark Van Dyke said, "Our policy is that we do not deal with indicted war criminals. If we encounter them, we will do our best to detain them."
In nearby Sarajevo, both Bosnian government and Serb troops pulled back from front lines as NATO soldiers moved in to position themselves between the warring factions.
Local armies have been given until midnight Wednesday local time -- one week after NATO took over from a U.N. peacekeeping force -- to complete preliminary withdrawals.
Van Dyke said the hostile armies had already left the majority of the 38 zones to be vacated by Wednesday. "Everything is going very smoothly," he said.
Meanwhile, in northeastern Bosnia, the first U.S. combat unit Tuesday crossed into Bosnia from Croatia over the Sava River.
A unit of the 1st Cavalry Regiment, including eight Bradley fighting vehicles and a number of Humvees, crossed by barge to secure the river bank where U.S. Army engineers are to build a pontoon bridge, and then moved south to set up a checkpoint.
The bulk of the 20,000 U.S. troops are still waiting to cross. Melting snow has swollen the river, forming a sea of mud that has submerged several vehicles. Despite several delays, the U.S. Army said it plans to forge the Sava this weekend. The bridge will provide American GIs with a land passage into Bosnia.
AP and Reuters contributed to this report.
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