Serb leader offers to withdraw from mountains after threat of air strikes

SHAKEN by the threat of Western air strikes, the Bosnian Serb leader yesterday said that his troops would withdraw from two vital mountains around Sarajevo seized in their latest offensive. Radovan Karadzic brushed aside boasts by his army chief, Ratko Mladic, that they would not pull back from Igman and Bjelasnica.

Ahead of talks with the UN commander in Bosnia, General Francis Briquemont, at the Bosnian Serb capital of Pale near Sarajevo, Mr Karadzic said: 'We want only to ensure that the Muslim artillery is not going to come back on to Igman and shell us.' Asked if his army chief would consent, he snapped: 'This not Mladic's decision. General Mladic is not a politician, just as politicians should not be generals.'

The self-styled president of the 'Srpska Republika' - the Bosnian Serb state - said he would present his plan to the UN force commander with the condition that UN peacekeepers assume exclusive control of the peaks.

He cheerfully admitted that the threat of air strikes against heavy artillery positions around Sarajevo played a large part in influencing his decision. 'Air strikes might not change the strategic situation, but they would change the situation politically and psychologically. I have taken air strikes into account very seriously. The threats are very serious.'

Mr Karadzic said it was time to end the struggle over Sarajevo, and even suggested that Serbs might give up the goal of splitting the city into two watertight ethnic communities.

'We are ready to hand over all the strategic points around Sarajevo to the UN. We are ready to be very serious about Sarajevo. We are ready to be very generous to the Muslims about Sarajevo. The city could be partitioned, or it could be handed over to the Muslims as an entity, and the Serbs build a new city in the neighbourhood.'

He outlined an ambitious plan to open up roads from the city. 'We do not intend to take Sarajevo, we want only to free the 50,000 Serbs inside the city, and get them out of that hell. Then we are ready to open up corridors. We could open up the city for the free movement of civilians - we could open it up tomorrow with joint checkpoints run by Serbs and Muslims and the UN.' With the Serbs and the UN on the brink of an accord over Mount Igman, the likelihood of air strikes may recede.

That is bound to be a bitter pill for the government in Sarajevo and for the Bosnian delegation attending peace talks in Geneva, headed by President Alija Izetbegovic. The Muslims hope that a short sharp shock would shatter the Serbs' self-confidence, and even pave a way for the 16-month Serb stranglehold around Sarajevo to be broken.

A Serb withdrawal from Mount Igman would reduce the level of shelling and improve life for civilians in the short term.

But the deal is not likely to end the siege, in spite of Mr Karadzic's airy talk of joint checkpoints and West Berlin-style autobahns running in and out of the Bosnian capital.

Only a week ago he suggested that the Muslims might have to dig long tunnels underneath Serbian territory to end the siege.

It is not even clear that Mr Karadzic is serious about offering to withdraw. He may be trying to delay air strikes, in the hope that Western resolve will fade.

Mr Karadzic may have a problem pulling on board General Mladic. The pudgy Serb commander stayed quiet during the talks in Pale, but had an amused grin on his face.

If UN peacekeepers take over Igman, the only Muslim supply line for weapons between Sarajevo and Muslim-held territory to the south-west would be cut.

'It is all the same to us whether the Serbs or the UN are on Mount Igman,' said Hanna, a medical student. 'We still won't get any supplies across the mountain, and in a few months there won't be a bullet left in the city.'

International mediators in Geneva said last night there would be no further talks until Monday - a sign they were having problems getting the Muslims back into negotiations.

Oxfam called for 'firm political and military measures' in Bosnia, even if it meant a temporary halting of aid. Tony Vaux, the charity's Eastern Europe co-ordinator, said humanitarian aid had helped relieve suffering but could not 'address all the suffering caused by war - loss of life, bereavements, trauma and living in a constant state of fear'.

He said the need for aid in Bosnia had been overstated, and was not as severe as in famine-ravaged Africa. 'We are dealing with a war and stopping the war is the overwhelming priority - getting aid through is secondary.'

Aid interrupted, page 10

Conor Cruise O'Brien, page 20

(Photograph omitted)