Serbs Complete Withdrawal From Strategic Bosnia Peaks

WASHINGTON —  Serbian forces completed their withdrawal from two strategic mountains overlooking Sarajevo, U.S. officials said Saturday, but they reportedly left burning buildings and columns of smoke in their wake.

Reports from the Sarajevo area indicated that Serbian troops had evacuated Mts. Igman and Bjelasnica in long, dusty convoys for a designated area of Bosnia-Herzegovina to the northwest, in time to meet a 4 p.m. Saturday deadline (7 a.m. PDT) brokered by U.N. authorities. The withdrawal averted the threat of NATO air strikes at least for the moment and paved the way for a resumption of peace talks in Geneva, the U.S. officials said.

As the Serbs departed, bright orange flames were said to be crackling at what was left of the 1984 Winter Olympics complex while a huge pall of smoke drifted out over the valley below.

About 250 French U.N. peacekeeping troops took up positions at crossroads Saturday to block entry into the mountains. Reporters said they saw large numbers of Serbian soldiers being driven out in trucks, grinning and cheering as they passed.

U.S. officials said the Serbian evacuation ended any immediate threat that the United States and its allies might convene a meeting of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization over the weekend to consider whether to launch air strikes.

Instead, the allies have decided to keep monitoring the situation as peace talks resume in Geneva on Monday, officials said. The negotiations have been stalled since early last week, when Bosnian Muslim leaders walked out to protest the Serbian shelling of the capital.

In Vincenza, Italy, French Gen. Jean Cot, commander of the U.N. Protection Force in the former Yugoslav republics, and U.S. Adm. Jeremy Michael Boorda, commander of NATO forces in Southern Europe, met for three hours to review plans for possible bombing should the Serbs reverse their actions.

Meanwhile, fighting among Serbian, Croatian and Muslim forces began around Doboj, in north-central Bosnia, and in Mostar, in the south, as the three sides sought to gain control of still-contested territory in advance of Monday’s bargaining in Geneva.