THE UN relief agency has Muslim Croat police of making unauthorised patrols after entering the Serb suburb of Vogosca yesterday, frightening the few Serbs in what had already become a ghost town.
"They are doing things which they are not supposed to be doing, patrolling around without any IPTF (International Police Task Force) supervision and starting checkpoint," said Mr Kris Janowski, a UN High Commissioner for Refugees spokesman.
"Serbs complained to us that they were frightened even though they said the police were polite," he added.
Vogosca is one of five Sarajevo suburbs being transferred from Serb authorities to Bosnia's Muslim Croat federation and the first to come under non Serb police control.
The streets of Vogosca were deserted when the first federation police entered without incident yesterday morning, accompanied by UN police monitors and Nato troops.
Thousands of Serbs, fearing reprisals for the 43 month Serb siege of Sarajevo, fled this week and Irish IPTF Police Commissioner Peter Fitzgerald said only about 2,500 of the suburb's 17,000 people now remained.
Meanwhile, in London, the British Prime Minister, Mr Major, voiced doubts about whether western peacekeepers in the former Yugoslavia could achieve their task on time and said a contingency plan should be worked out in case they failed.
He also said he doubted whether the US contingent in the Nato led Implementation Force (Ifor) could be withdrawn unilaterally, hinting that a pullout would have to be gradual.
Under last year's Dayton peace agreement between the warring sides in former Yugoslavia, the west agreed to send 60,000 troops to the region for a year to implement the treaty.
But senior military figures on the ground doubt that Ifor can ensure a lasting peace in the region by the time they are due to leave next December.
"It is generally expected that the force can leave at the end of the year. I hope we can have the work done by the end of the year," Mr Major told the parliamentary assembly of the 10 nation Western European Union (WEU) defence grouping.
US officials and diplomats are now privately talking about a phased withdrawal.
Mr Major said although Nato would have to continue to play the key role in ensuring Europe's security, the continent should bear more of the burden itself, especially by mounting smaller scale operations. He said this was an ideal role for the WEU.
In Banja Luka, Ifor and the Bosnian Serb military resumed high level contacts.
Gen Michael Jackson, commander of British troops in Ifor, met in the north Bosnian city with Serb First Corps commander, Gen Momir Talic, the Bosnian Serb military press service said.