THE Bosnian Serb leadership, angered and humiliated by the extradition of two senior officers for questioning by the UN war crimes tribunal, yet loath to burn its Dayton bridges, yesterday announced a boycott of meetings with some international organisations, but otherwise held its fire.
Nato officials, fearful of a violent reaction from the Serb military which has yet to react publicly tightened security and withdrew liaison officers from Pale, the Bosnian Serb headquarters. But a spokesman said that contacts with senior Serb officers, banned last week by the Serb commander, Gen Ratko Mladic, here improving.
No official response had been agreed in Pale by yesterday evening, but the Minister for Information, Mr Dragan Bozanic, said the government had called an urgent session for last night, and he hoped the Bosnian Serb President, Dr Radovan Karadzic, would attend.
The extradition, aboard a Nato plane, from Sarajevo to The Hague of Gen Djordje Djukic and Col AIeksa Krsmanovic, arrested by the Bosnian government on suspicion of war crimes, was "very, very dangerous", Mr Bozanic said.
"We are going to continue with the implementation of the peace agreement, we are going to have contacts with Ifor Nato's Implementation Force," he added.
It is not clear, however, what the Serbs can do their boycott of meetings on arms control and the forthcoming elections harm only themselves, yet both officials and the public are wary of actions that might derail the peace process.
In Bucharest the US Assistant Secretary of State, Mr Richard Holbrooke, architect of the Dayton agreement, said the two Serb officers could be questioned about the suspected massacre of 3,000 Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica.
He announced new "rules of the road" about the treatment of suspected war criminals. In future they can only be detained on the recommendation of the Hague tribunal. Any side, Serb, Croat or Muslim, wishing to issue a warrant for the arrest of a suspect must gain the tribunal's assent if it wants cooperation by Ifor and the tribunal.
After briefing Romanian leaders on the Bosnian peace process, Mr Holbrooke flew on to Zagreb for talks with President Franjo Tudjman of Croatia aimed at easing Bosnian Croat objections to plans to unite the Croat and Muslim populations of Mostar.
. A rifle grenade hit a Nato base in the western Sarajevo suburb of Ilidza on Monday but there were no casualties, a Nato spokesman said yesterday.