Incident in Posavina Corridor Leads
to Travel Warning for Bosnians
(Tuzla, March 6— Reuters) Bosnian authorities said on Wednesday that 14 citizens of the Muslim-Croat Federation were being detained by separatist Serbs on a road secured by U.S. peace troops in northeastern Bosnia.The 14 were stopped recently while driving across the Serb-held Posavina Corridor, which stretches between the city of Tuzla and the federation-held border with Croatia, an official in the Tuzla cantonal administration told Reuterss. He said the canton was urging federation residents not to travel the corridor road for the time being because it was clear the NATO-led peace Implementation Force (IFOR) in Bosnia could not assure their safety.
Freedom of Movement is Challenged
Part of IFOR's mandate under the Dayton peace accords on Bosnia is to foster free civilian movement across ceasefire lines between the Muslim-Croat and Serb factions. But IFOR says it has no authority to get involved in local police work.The cantonal official said Major-General William Nash, commander of U.S. forces who are in charge of Bosnia's east-northeast sector, had been notified of the arrests and asked to work for the detainees' release. Local officials gave no information on the identity of the 14 other than that they were civilians.
The road cutting through Posavina was one of Bosnia's major overland arteries before it was sealed off during four years of ethnic fighting that ended last November. It has been clogged with traffic — mostly IFOR and foreign aid and commercial vehicles — since U.S. combat troops reopened it two months ago.
A number of Muslim and Croat motorists have passed through without problems despite Serb police checkpoints along the way, but others have been intimidated, detained or robbed of property.
Berserkistan Gallery. Close-Range Combat Coverage
of the Bosnian War in the Posavina Corridor
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