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SARAJEVO -- The new United Nations military commander in Bosnia took up his post Thursday as efforts to bring the warring factions to the negotiating table ran into new difficulties.
Attempts by international peace mediators to persuade the Bosnian Serbs to accept the latest peace plan remained "deadlocked," a senior Serb official confirmed.
Fighting also flared in the northwest, with the UN blaming Bosnian Serb forces for shelling the government-held town of Bihac, a UN safe area, Thursday morning. Six shells impacted around dawn, wounding one civilian, a spokesman said.
Lieutenant General Rupert Smith, 51, who replaced fellow Briton Lieutenant General Sir Michael Rose, said however that he hoped to convert Bosnia's shaky new cease-fire into lasting peace.
"I'm pleased to take up the reins from my predecessor, Michael Rose, to do what we can to give aid to the unfortunate and long-suffering people caught up in this conflict and on the basis of the 'cessation of hostilities' to work hard at arriving at a settlement and peace in this country," Smith told reporters on arrival at the UN-run Sarajevo airport.
Asked whether Rose had passed on any words of wisdom, Smith said, "'Good luck' were his parting words."
Analysts believe Smith's main task will be to deploy UN troops between rival Serb and Bosnian government forces to calm fighting and foster a revival of peace talks.
Three envoys from the five-nation "contact group," who are trying to revive the peace process, were in Sarajevo on Thursday after having changed their minds about breaking off their mission to Bosnia.
The mediators said Wednesday they were going home because they had failed to persuade the Serbs to accept the current peace plan as a basis for new negotiations.
But a U.S. official told reporters that three of the five envoys had changed their minds and had remained in Sarajevo to consider their next step.
Russian and German envoys flew out because they had prior engagements. The other members of the contact group are the United States, Britain and France.
A senior Serb official in Pale said contact group members might meet again with the Bosnian Serb leadership Thursday but he was skeptical that any breakthrough could be achieved.
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