SARAJEVO's Serbs in a snub to the US architects of Bosnia's peace pacts said yesterday they would put some of 16 abducted civilians on trial.
The US has expressed concern about a wave of Serb abductions which prompted Bosnian government demands that Nato protect civilian travellers on roads it reopened.
However, rebel Serbs, in a defiant stand, refused to hand over captive Muslims and said some hostages would be tried, as the US Defence Secretary, Mr William Perry, arrived to boost US troops morale.
Mr Perry, the first US cabinet member to visit Bosnia, tried to play down the first direct challenge to Nato's authority since it became Bosnia's military policeman two weeks ago. He lamented that the capital had been shelled to a ruin but said the building of a US river bridge into Bosnia was a "supreme triumph of the human spirit over the forces of nature",
"It gives me a very good, warm feeling that the peace implementation is here and there is a bright prospect for peace in the future," he said.
In Washington, a State Department spokesman said the abductions could constitute a breach of the US sponsored Dayton peace agreements ending the 3 1/2 year war and were "troubling". Senior Nato officials expressed concern about the abductions but said they highlighted the delay in organising a 1,500 strong UN police force to handle such civil matters.
Officials of the Muslim led Bosnian government said the seizures were a breach of the freedom of movement provisions guaranteed by the Dayton pacts. One called them "terrorism".
The Nato ground commander, Gen Michael Walker, met the mayor of the Sarajevo Serb suburb of Ilidza, where the 16 were detained, to discuss government demands for their release.
The mayor, Mr Prstojevic Nedjelko, told him some detainees were caught wearing military uniform, had strayed from agreed roads or were black marketeering. He said some would be prosecuted.
The government version is that the 16 were civilians trying to travel through Ilidza, a nationalist Serb stronghold during the war, since Nato reopened roads last month. "We are concerned at these people's safety and we're taking it up at the appropriate level," said Col Mark Rayner, a spokesman for Nato's Implementation Force (Ifor).
The French Foreign Ministry yesterday said three of those detained had been released by the Serbs, but a senior Bosnian government official, Mr Amir Hadziomeragic, denied any had been released, saying those freed were three women who strayed into Serb territory on Tuesday and had nothing to do with the 16 the Serbs were keeping.
Mr Hadziomeragic said the Serbs told government officials and Nato commanders yesterday: that they considered the 16 to be prisoners of war. "What we have here is a clear act of terrorism," he added.
The State Department spokesman, Mr Glyn Davies, tried to balance the affront to Nato with the rapid arrival of peace. "But on, the whole, if I can take you back to November 21st [when the accord was initialled at Dayton, Ohio], the progress since then has been rather startling and positive," he said.
Mr Perry, wearing a flak jacket and fatigues, said the issue should not overshadow Bosnia's new found peace. Asked how it might affect Ifor's relations with civilian authorities, Mr Perry said: "There's a good, harmonious relationship ... I think the relationship is firm."
"We could not be more pleased, the Nato force is on schedule," he told reporters at Sarajevo airport before flying on to Tuzla, the main US base in Bosnia. He said it was important that an international police force ordered to Sarajevo by the UN Security, Council should be deployed "as soon as possible".
Mr Perry took the unusual step for a US military official of walking across a bridge built by army engineers to carry the bulk of the 20,000 US troops and equipment into Bosnia.
In Sarajevo, he discussed peacekeeping with President Alija Izetbegovic of Bosnia and the Bosnian Prime Minister, Mr Haris Silajdzic, and received briefings from top Nato military commanders, including Admiral Leighton Smith of the US navy.
Two British soldiers were injured yesterday when they stumbled on a land mine or an unexploded shell while working on a hotel to house Nato in Sarajevo. They were taken to a French military field hospital in the city.