THE Bosnian Serbs said yesterday they were boycotting all talks with the Muslim led Bosnian government on implementing the Dayton peace agreement until eight Serb soldiers arrested over war crimes were freed.
Gen Djordje Djukic, the man in charge of Serb logistics during the Bosnian war which ended in December, was among those arrested, Bosnian officials said.
The suspension of contacts a potentially severe blow to the heart of the US brokered peace accords for Bosnia, came as UN human rights rapporteur Ms Elisabeth Rehn clashed with senior Serb leaders over an international war crimes investigation.
Mr Momcilo Krajisnik, "speaker" of the Serb assembly - warned war crimes investigators against politicisation and propaganda. However, Ms Rehn dismissed the attack and praised the even handedness of the investigators.
Meanwhile a top US human rights official, Mr John Shattuck, and the commander of the NATO led force in Bosnia, Admiral Leighton Smith, inspected a mine at Ljubija, in north western Bosnia, where some 2,000 murdered Muslims are thought buried Admiral Smith, speaking after the visit to the two alleged mass grave sites, said: "I have been consistent in stating that we are going to help the international ICT [International Criminal Tribunal] but reaffirmed IFOR would not guard individual sites.
In Sarajevo, Bosnian Serb radio Pale said: "The Serb side has decided to postpone all contacts with the [Muslim Croat] federation until 11 Serbs arrested illegally are released.
"Serb representatives will not attend negotiations in Muslim held Sarajevo because they do not have guarantees for their safety" it added. The Serbs are now demanding that future negotiations be held in "a building between the two entities' territories".
While the radio spoke of 11 Serbs detained, both the Implementation Force (IFOR) and the Bosnian government have only spoken of eight detained.
The Bosnian State Security chief, Mr Bakir Alispahic, said Gen Djukic, Cot Aleksa Krsmanovic and their driver, Mr Radenko Todorovic, were stopped on January 30th in government territory.
The Serbs maintain the men were detained en route to a meeting chaired by NATO, abut a senior NATO spokesman said the men had simply taken a wrong turn and ended up in government territory.
The Dayton peace agreement creates a Serb republic and a Croat Muslim federation under an umbrella central government which has only residual powers over foreign policy.
Any war crimes suspects must be released if the former belligerents fail to produce credible evidence to The Hague based International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICT).
An IFOR officer earlier criticised the "grubby kidnapping", but Mr Alispahic said of the detentions: "We have evidence that these persons were involved in war crimes against civilians, even in the Sarajevo area.
He said the Bosnian authorities would hand ICT investigators a dossier against Gen Djukic and Cot Krsmanovic, but their driver and two other soldiers would be released "soon".
Three other Serb soldiers caught with large amounts of ammunition in their car would be held on murder charges. However, the Bosnian authorities would release the men if ordered to do so by the investigators, he added.
Last night Nato appealed for restraint and said it would remain neutral in the dispute.