BOSNIA: TALKS ON BRCKO - UPDATE

(8 Feb 1999) Serbo-Croat/Nat International arbitrators began new talks on Monday in Vienna on the status of a disputed Bosnian town. Both Bosnian Serbs and the Muslim-Croat Federation are pressing for a long-delayed final decision on Brcko. The talks are the third attempt by international officials to bring a peaceful and fair solution for one of the last unresolved problems remaining from the 1995 Dayton peace accords. Muslim refugees living on the edges of what was their home city say they won’t return without guarantees of their safety. The village of Gornji Rahic, near Brcko, was quiet on Monday. Both the Serb and Muslim sides had planned rallies to coincide with the last day of talks in Vienna on Brcko’s future. But throughout the region these were all cancelled due to the heavy snow in Bosnia at the moment. All Brcko’s Bosnian Muslims are staying in villages such as these outside their home town. These villages swelled dramatically, the population increasing one-hundred fold in some cases, following the 1992-95 Bosnian War. Brcko was predominantly Muslim before the war, but Bosnian Serb forces expelled or killed 70 percent of the non-Serb population of Brcko in 1992. Some refugees went abroad, but many remain within a 40 mile radius of Brcko. The NATO-led peacekeeping force, SFOR, watches over them. They still say there will be no return to Brcko unless the town is granted to the Muslim- Croat Federation. SOUNDBITE: (Serbo-croat) “I do expect a positive reaction. The city should belong to the federation, to Bosnia- Herzegovina. We want to have a normal life. This not the way for us to have a normal life.“ SUPER CAPTION: Vox pop, Bosnian Muslim refugee The refugees live in housing built using grants from the United States government, sometimes tantalisingly close to their original homes, now occupied by Serbs. SOUNDBITE: (Serbo-croat) “I think everybody should return to their own property. I am really close to my own house. I can watch it. I can see it. What can I do? The Serbs are in my house. They won’t let me near my house, even my garden.“ SUPER CAPTION: Vox pop, Bosnian Muslim If the city is handed to Bosnia-Herzegovina, it would mean Bosnian Serbs would be left in two divided parts of their entity, Republika Srpska. People claim that international supervision of the city is unacceptable as well. The final solution is expected in the next few days although the negotiations in Vienna could last for week or more. Find out more about AP Archive: Twitter: Facebook: ​​ Instagram: You can license this story through AP Archive: