BOSNIA: WITHDRAWAL OF HEAVY WEAPONS FROM FRONT LINE UPDATE

Описание: (17 Apr 1996) English/Nat

The former warring factions in Bosnia are working flat out to meet tomorrow's (Thursday's) deadline for the withdrawal of heavy weapons and equipment from the front line.

The deadline was set by NATO following the signing of the Dayton peace agreement which ended the war in former Yugoslavia.

The pullback operation - supervised by IFOR troops - heralds growing confidence that all sides are firmly committed to peace and will comply fully with the terms of the peace accord.

With just hours to go before the "D+120" deadline expires, the former warring parties in Bosnia are packing up and going back to base.

All troops are leaving the front lines and going back to barracks - heavy weapons and machinery are being rounded up at collection points designated by the international peacekeeping force (IFOR).

IFOR troops are deployed throughout Bosnia-Herzegovina to oversee the "pullback" operations - they were on hand in the Vitez area where Bosnian Croat forces were transporting their weapons to this former factory.

IFOR also kept a watchful eye from the air over the Serb-held town of Batkovici near Tuzla - where soldiers are finalising their troop and weapons withdrawal as stipulated in the Dayton peace agreement.

Progress so far indicates that all sides will comply fully with the terms of the peace accord - a further sign that lasting peace is achievable in the former Yugoslavia.

SOUNDBITE: (English)

Basically it means that the war is essentially over - the armies of all the sides go from a war-time footing to a peace-time footing - they come from a field where they've been deployed to fight back into barracks where they are no a peace-time footing again so essentially the country is now really at peace.
SUPER CAPTION: Major Simon Hazelock - IFOR spokesman in Sarajevo.

The Bosnian Army has been busy removing tanks from the front lines around Tuzla for four days.

The transformation of all former warring factions into peace-time armies is seen by the people of Bosnia as a further sign that the four-year civil war really is over.

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