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Show Page DIO — THE DAILY HERALD,Provo, Utah, Thursday, May 9, 1996 Market bringing together 3 Serbs, Muslims, Croats éleaps 8 oF TY sce By ALEXANDER G. HIGGINS Associated Press Writer POREBRICE, Bosnia-Herze- especially intense. Even Bosnian Serb plates, defiantly wri Cyrillic letters instead of the Roman alphabet used by the government, are parked along the ovina — Next to the ruins of a Tnstss Serb bunker, a new open- ro air market is reuniting old friends divided by war. The market draws Serbs, Mus- lims and Croats fromas far as 100 miles away — from Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia — in what some mediators think offers the best hope of keeping the peace in the former Yugoslavia — the common concerms created by good old-fash- Lunch with loved ones A Bosnian Serb family sits down for a meal in a cemetery in aa about 9 miles from Sarajevo, traveled from nearby Serb terriWednesday.TI tory to this Bosnian government-held town to pay respects to dead family members in accordance with the Serb holiday of St. Mark's. In nearby Hadzici, about 250 Muslims ones to prevent visits to the cemetery there by Serbs. NATO turns focus to remote Bosnia = = vo, but Walker hopes the trip to Visegradlessens the emphasis that the military, international a and reporters place onS By LIAM McDOWALL Associated Press Writer VISEGRAD, Bosnia-Herzeegovina — NATO's latest foray Beep into Serb-held regions of SBosnia is a high-tech command center, high on hill overlooking one of the country’s most notorious former killing fields. = With most of the strictly miliry terms of the Dayton peace eement met, NATO commanders have temporarily moved from Stheir Sarajevo headquarters to sfocus on more remote areas of Bosnia. Lt. Gen. Sir Michael Walker. the commander of the nearly evo lens or filter. Walker said. “We've worked very hardto counter that tendency.” He dismissed speculation thai the moveand the recent relocation ofthe 12.000-member British-led force to the Serb-hneld town of Banja Luka were in any way connected, But there are clear signs that the British. by movingtheir headquarters, are see to sample local Serb opinion about their future, including the fate of political leader Radovan adzic and military commander Gen. Ratko Mladic, both indicted for war crimes by the U.N. court in The Hague Under the Dayton peaceaccord, peacekeepers are not mandated to search for the two, but are supposed to arrest themif they come across them In a similar attempt at shifting the focus from Sarajevo, Carl 60.000 ground troops of the @NATO-led peace force. has made PVisegrad. 50 miles east of the Bosnian capital. his base for five adays. = Inthis deceptively sleepy town, Weep in Serb-heldterritory andjust west of the border with Serbia, a .170-person corps of officers and Ssupport staff has established Walkser's commandcenter in an abanae camper park phe n headquarters of the <NATO- led force remains in Saraje- Bildt. the official in charge of the civilian aspects of the Bosnian peace, opened an office in Banja Luka on Monday From Visegrad, Walker commandssoldiers fromthe 33 nations contributing \tq {he international peaceforcein Bosnia r Wn & oy legant Ottoman bridge spans na river, which was ‘rionaliaed in the Nobel Prize-winning author Ivo Andric’s novel, “Bridge over the Drina.” Hundreds of Muslim men were cut downin Visegrad in early 1992 whenthe Serbs took overthe town, in oneof the early massacresofthe nearly four-year war. Today, the Arabic script of the bridge, where someofthe killing took place, has been daubed with the Serbs’ Cy Tillic graffiti. The NATO pap stayed clear of the Vélatife isshe of the Mus- ioned buying and selling. “Even in its infancy, communication and commerceis helpful to the peace process,” said Maj. Gen William L. Nash, commander of US. forces in Bosnia “Maybe people's actions can Seize the initiative fromthe political rhetoric.” Every day, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., trucks and cars line a dusty road still littered with spent machin nm bullet shells just 100 yards from a U.S. Army checkpoint Before the NATO-led international force separated the warring factions, the Bosnian front line was scarcely yards away to the east The license plates alonetell a story. Cars come fromSerb, Croat and Muslimareas — someof them from Vukovar, Croatia, and Gradacac, Bosnia, where fighting was lims’ return to tha now Serb-held HELP MDA HELP PEOPLE town Apart from an bursts of automatic fire and one smoke grenade hurledat British and Portuguese troops, NATOofficials say they have had smooth relations with the local people. Sigeman sa racarat ot OC Comes permission Copyright ©1994 DC Comics businessman Osman Hasic, who sells curtain rods from his car. Adding a measure ofstability, Bosnian federation police direct traffic on and off the dusty road. The market, which has been Such a gathering would have operating daily for a month and a been inconceivable six months ago. The bunker is now little more than a pile of dirt. The boards and posts have been salvaged for a more peaceful structure — a drinkstentin the field on the,other side of the road. Nearby. a woman cooks sausages on a gas-fired stove for her makeshift cafe of three picnic tables under an umbrella. Among her customers is Tomo Tomic, a 52-year-old Bosnian Croat enjoying a drink with old Serb and Muslim friends from the Brcko area, meeting for the first time since the war began. “It’s just like the good old days,” Tomic said. “We've been waiting all this time to meet again. Heand others at the market said such meeting would never have happened without the presence nearby of the U.S. soldiers They control traffic on the highwaylinking Tuzla and Sarajevo to Croatia “So much hatred was createdin four years of war that we have to have (the NATO-led peace force) now to make something like this possible,” said former Bosnian half, sprang up spontaneously on the Muslim-Croatside ofthe internationally enforced zone separat- ing it from the Bosnian Serbs to the north. Atthe busiest times — usually Tuesday and Thursday afternoons — up to 600 people gather at the market Bottles of vodka, slivevitz plum brandy and beer made in Serbia are perched on car roofs in the hope of luring buyers wholive in Bosnian federation territory. Onone car hood are music cassettes that again demonstrate the shared heritage: popular singers include Bosnian Muslim Halid Beslic, Croatian Dusko Lokin and even Serbian folk singer Ceca Velickovic, who married infamous Serb warlord “Arkan,” Zeljko Raznatovic Someof the itemsfor sale from truck beds are pretty basic: sacks of sugar,salt and fertilizer. A pig in a sack squeals from inside one truck and three chickens peck at corn kernels in another. 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