(30 Aug 1996) English/Nat
IFOR troops have begun a clean-up operation in the Bosnian town of Mahala after a violent stand-off between Bosnian Serb police and Muslim refugees.
The Mahala incident was followed by another confrontation in Zvornik where Serb police trapped five unarmed U-N police and three other U-N staffers in a building.
The confrontations - two weeks before general elections meant to reunite Bosnia - were among the most serious since the end of Bosnia's nearly four-year war late last year.
The commander of IFOR's ground troops - Lieutenant General Sir Michael Walker - has met Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic in Sarajevo to discuss the situation.
As an uneasy calm returned to Mahala Friday, IFOR troops continued the search for banned weapons.
It followed Thursday's violent confrontation involving Bosnian Serb police and Muslim refugees, when shots were fired and US IFOR troops were pinned down in the crossfire.
Not surprisingly, the peacekeepers patrolled the area, looking for anything suspicious.
Under the terms of the Dayton agreement, weapons are not allowed within the zone of separation.
The peacekeepers continued to carry out their careful search, checking under floorboards and behind walls as locals looked on.
Although no weapons were found, IFOR said it believed arms were being hidden.
SOUNDBITE:
"We are making a security patrol through the area - we have reports that there might be weapons hidden - especially over there in that cornfield. But as yet we have found nothing."
SUPER CAPTION: Major Greg Tubbs, IFOR
The tense stand-off between the Muslims and Bosnian Serb police began Thursday.
Policemen opened fire on unarmed Muslim refugees returning to their homes in Mahala, a Serb-controlled village.
IFOR was called in to separate the two sides and - after being caught in the crossfire at the height of the flare-up - detained 65 people, including Bosnian Serb policemen.
But in retaliation, an angry Serb mob trapped six unarmed U-N police monitors and three local aides in their office in the nearby town of Zvornik.
On Friday, the commander of IFOR's ground troops - Lieutenant General Sir Michael Walker - met Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic in Sarajevo to discuss the situation.
They pledged to work together to try to stop any more incidents occurring.
Walker felt the meeting with Izetbegovic had gone well.
SOUNDBITE:
"I'm continuing the second half of what I started last night. I presented the arms that were confiscated in the zone of separation near Mahala and presented them to the leaders of both sides to show them a symbol of what agonies the people were going through on the grounds and which needed attention at the highest level and I saw the president, he kindly gave me time, he has the weapons that were taken from the Muslims in Mahala and I have asked him to do what he can to try at his level to stop these small areas of extreme difficulty becoming increasingly ones of strategic serious difficulty."
(Question: And what was his response?)
"He listened to me, I think he accepted my point, he feels that many of these things are positive signs that people are wishing to move. My reply really was that I thought we had to address the reality of the people on the ground who find themselves in this very difficult position before we could really try and push that forward as part of the positive side."
SUPER CAPTION: Lieutenant General Sir Michael Walker, IFOR commander
Thursday's incidents were among the most serious since the end of Bosnia's nearly four-year war late last year.
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