SARAJEVO, March 1 -- Diplomats and residents of Sarajevo Friday marked the 5th anniversary of Bosnia-Herzegovina's independence by celebrating a formal end to the nearly 4-year siege of the Bosnian capital by Serbs. A spokesman of the international organization for civilian rebuilding efforts in Bosnia-Herzegovina told reporters the siege was over, but that the world would never forget the innocents who died. An estimated 12,000 Sarajevans were killed during the civil war that erupted in April 1992. 'A thousand years will pass and the world will forget neither what was done to Sarajevo nor the heroic courage and resistance of its citizens,' said Colum Murphy. Murphy told reporters that as soon as the Bosnian federal police moved into the northwest suburb of Ilijas Thursday, removing highway barriers, the rest of Bosnia was open to Sarajevo. 'With the federation police now in Ilijas, we can technically say that siege is at an end, since that opens the roads from Sarajevo to Zenica and Sarajevo to Tuzla,' said Murphy. The spokesman said the end of the siege held special meaning for Bosnia's independence day. 'A long and brutal winter has come to an end,' he said. 'Sarajevo symbolizes civilization assaulted, and civilization triumphant. Sarajevo lives,' said Murphy. To ease the tension with the Serb population moving out of Sarajevo suburbs before and during the transition of authority to Muslim control, Murphy's organization proposed Thursday to the Bosnian government that the uniforms of the Bosnian federation police be changed.
'We proposed that federation police be given new uniforms which would outwardly symbolize a 'new day' if you like, and better assure the people in areas to be transferred...we are hoping to get that moving as quickly as possible. The deployment of Bosnian federation police into formerly held Bosnian Serb Sarajevo suburbs, dressed in blue uniforms and driving green and white cars, has intimidated Serbs, afraid of Bosnian government reprisals. Reports of abuse by the police and the incoming Muslim population has also added fears. At least half of an estimated 70,000 Bosnian Serbs living in five Sarajevo suburbs are expected to leave the area. The International Police Task Force, which deployed alongside federation police to prevent incidents, reported more abuse cases as the change of authority took place in the suburb of Ilijas Thursday. 'Two incidents involving intimidation by Muslims of one Serb family and another of armed Muslims threatening Serb residents in Ilijas (were reported). Both incidents have not been confirmed by us, but we want the federal police to make sure that this doesn't happen again,' said IPTF spokesman Alexander Ivanko. 'We have registered 251 Serb individuals who plan to remain in Ilijas...the total number of Serbs in Ilijas today stands between 750 and a 1,000. In Vogosca 370 Serbs left yesterday for Lukavica on foot,' he said. Ivanko says the ranks of the international police force will swell beginning next week to over one third of its authorized strength, to just over 600 officers from around the world. 'We have 60 police officers arriving from the United States, 50 from the Netherlands and 22 from Russia next week. That's 600 out of 1,721 which is authorized by the U.N.' said Ivanko.
