The Elysee palace said Wednesday President Jacques Chirac had written to U.S. President Bill Clinton calling for guarantees for separatist Serbs living in suburbs scheduled to revert to government control under the Bosnia peace deal.
Serb civilians in Sarajevo fear reprisals from Moslems and Croats, the main victims of 3 1/2 years of siege by Serb forces surrounding the capital, when it comes under the control of the Moslem-Croat federation that will occupy half of a new Bosnian republic.
But Bosnian Prime Minister Haris Silajdzic dismissed the French call, saying Serbs in Sarajevo -- said by Serb leaders to number 150,000 but estimated at half that by international aid workers -- had as much protection as any other citizens.
"We have tens of thousands of Serbs living right now in Sarajevo because Sarajevo has been for centuries a multi-ethnic town," he said in Washington on Wednesday during a visit for talks with the U.S. government.
"All of us ... enjoy the same rights," Silajdzic said.
He was backed by U.S. State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns, who said the peace accords agreed to in Dayton, Ohio last week "give to all citizens, including Bosnian Serbs, the right to freedom of movement and certainly the right to have their civil rights protected."
Up to 10,000 Sarajevo Serbs rallied in the suburb of Ilidza on Wednesday vowing to resist the handover of the area, ignoring a promise by Foreign Minister Muhamed Sacirbey that all would be protected apart from those who helped shell the city.
?Slovenia recognized rump Yugoslavia on Thursday and proposed that the two countries establish diplomatic relations, Slovene and Yugoslav news agencies reported.
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