Face-Off Between Bosnian Serbs Subdued by NATO

BANJA LUKA, Bosnia-Herzegovina — NATO soldiers intervened Sunday after special police loyal to Bosnian Serb President Biljana Plavsic seized control of a building here that they later said was being used by rival police to tap her telephones.

The Plavsic forces were reportedly surrounded by about 150 rival police armed with pistols, and NATO spokesman Maj. John Blakeley said that British troops in light armored vehicles and two platoons of Royal Military Police deployed around the police building to prevent possible violence.

Speaking in the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, Blakeley said the peacekeeping troops in the NATO-led Stabilization Force moved in after learning that Plavsic’s special police units had entered the building about 4:30 a.m.

Several hours later, hard-line nationalists opposed to Plavsic asked permission to send in their own special police to counter the action, but the Stabilization Force rejected that request.

Plavsic’s police commander, Maj. Dragan Lukac, said his men seized the public security center because they believed that police loyal to her government opponents were tapping telephones and fax machines in the president’s office.

The Stabilization Force said the action by Plavsic’s forces violated new guidelines for special police handed down by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization this month.

As of Sunday evening, the British troops were in control of the building and police from the opposing camps were still being questioned inside, he said.

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Sunday’s events reflected rising tensions in Bosnia’s Serbian territory, where Plavsic supporters are waging a battle for power against loyalists of ex-president and indicted war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic.

Serbian media quoted Lukac as saying that evidence was found Sunday that secret police loyal to Karadzic had “continuously tapped” the president’s telephone conversations.

In addition to Plavsic’s, state security tapped the phones of Constitutional Court judges Rajko Kuzmanovic and Jovo Rosic, Lukac told a Banja Luka radio station.

One of the judges, Rosic, was reportedly badly beaten Thursday because he opposed plans by the court to strike down a decision by Plavsic to dissolve parliament and call early elections.

A top Plavsic aide said Sunday that the president will go ahead with new elections. Milos Prica said the elections will be held Oct. 12, the independent BETA news agency reported.