THE LONG battle to defeat separatist forces and reunify Sarajevo as Bosnia's multi ethnic capital ended yesterday as the last of five Serb held suburbs came under Muslim Croat federation control.
Success had been achieved at the peace table, not in the trenches.
"Fighting would never have reunified Sarajevo," a Nato spokesman, Major Simon Haselock, told reporters. "Far more has been achieved here in the past four months through negotiation and common sense than in the previous four years of war.
Muslim Croat dominion over the suburbs also means Sarajevo is linked by highway to federation territory to the north and west for the first time since Serb forces laid siege to the city in April 1992.
The Serbian President, Mr Slobodan Milosevic, negotiating on behalf of the Bosnian Serbs at the Dayton peace conference last November, surrendered the suburbs in exchange for a Serb republic of 49 per cent of Bosnia's territory.
But Serb authorities withdrew from the suburbs spitefully, tolerating if not inciting a wave of arson, looting and intimidation. Nor did the Bosnian government extend much in the way of reassurances to Serb civilians wondering if they would be safe from reprisal after the transfer of authority.
But about 20,00-25,000 Serbs lived in government controlled Sarajevo throughout the war and the UN estimates another 10,000 remained in the suburbs through the hand over. That makes the city Bosnia's sole remaining multi fiction stronghold, a seed for the possible future reintegration of the entire country.
With the federation gaining control of the inner city neighbourhood of Grbavica yesterday, the last barricades can now be removed from Sarajevo's streets.
Instead of having to duck walk through a makeshift tunnel under the airport and brave Serb fire on an exposed mountain path to leave the city, residents now drive the main road to the Adriatic coast.
The reintegration of Sarajevo has returned utility system's across the capital, eliminating the need to queue for water, fashion candles from mackerel tins filled with cooking oil and scrounge firewood along mine infested front lines.
Sarajevo has survived but the price was dear. By government reckoning more than 10,500 people were killed in the 43 month Serb siege and another 50,000 were wounded.
The last government offensive to try to break the siege was launched in June 1995. It failed at huge cost.
Hampered by an international arms embargo, hundreds of government soldiers were killed and thousands were wounded, for no appreciable gain in territory as they hurled themselves against the Serb's superior heavy weapons.
But the offensive triggered a the sustained Nato air and artillery strikes against Serb positions in August and September of 1995. These in turn led to serious negotiations which produced the Dayton accords and the final reintegration of Sarajevo.