Croats riot against Mostar peace plan

EMMA DALY

Mostar

Violence erupted in the divided Bosnian city of Mostar yesterday, calling into question the continuation of the European Union mission to administer and unify the city, shattered two years ago by a Muslim-Croat war.

Croats from the city's western side, angered by proposals by Hans Koschnick, the EU administrator, to reunify Mostar, fired at his car, surrounded it, jumped on the roof, stoned his headquarters and damaged other vehicles. The incidents threaten the shaky Muslim-Croat federation in Bosnia - first created by the US in 1994 and now a key component of the Dayton peace agreement negotiated last year.

Mr Koschnick, a German, who has administered the city on behalf of the EU since the US-brokered deal that ended the Muslim-Croat war in March 1994, was attacked as he left a press conference called to announce his plan. He called all international EU staff to a meeting last night, telling them it was now up to the European governments to decide whether to continue the mission. "Mr Koschnick has told our governments ... We'll see," Dragan Gasic, an EU spokesman, said last night. Asked if the EU would withdraw from Mostar, he said only: "Our governments have to decide."

Between 200 and 300 people gathered outside the plushly renovated Hotel Ero, Mr Koschnick's headquarters on the west bank, and attacked his new armoured BMW as the administrator left, firing in the air and trying to smash its windows.

Seven bullet holes pockmarked the windows of Mr Koschnick's vehicle. The bonnet was crushed as protesters jumped on the car and tried to overturn it; the administrator was only able to escape when Milo Brajkovic, the Croat mayor of west Mostar, told the crowd to disperse.

Spanish Nato troops summoned to help the EU chief arrived too late to rescue him but stationed two armoured troop carriers outside the hotel last night in case of more trouble. Special police units from the Bosnia federation were also standing by in the hotel, which was hit by a bullet hit during the fracas. No one was injured. A 10pm curfew was imposed across the city last night.

Mr Koschnick and most of his staff had moved down the road to the court building, where the Western European Union police are based, but returned to the Hotel Ero in the afternoon. Mr Koschnick told staff they had the right to move to a town near by or to leave the mission if they did not feel safe. Several international aid agencies were rumoured to have pulled out of the city yesterday and others were limiting staff movements. Most were waiting to see what night would bring, fearful that another violent incident could spark a renewal of the conflict.

In 1993 and 1994 Croats and Muslims in the city fought a 10-month war which ended in an agreement to form a joint federal state, one of two parts of future Bosnia, together with the Serb Republic.

Mr Koschnick's proposal is to create seven city districts - three Croat, three Muslim and one neutral.

But Croat nationalists, already furious that their dream of denying power and rights to Muslims and Serbs in the city is at risk, saw the city-centre "neutral" zone - which had a pre-war Muslim majority but is now in Croat hands - as a Muslim Trojan horse.

Insisting the plan was in breach of the peace agreement reached in Dayton last year, Mr Brajkovic cut ties with the EU, accusing Mr Koschnick of running a "scam" against the Croats.

"We are ready to continue to persevere in the struggle of the Croatian people for independence," he said last night.

Yesterday afternoon he addressed a second demonstration, urging protesters to disperse and telling them he was under intense pressure from the Croatian government in Zagreb. But, he added: "We are ending all relations with the EU now. What Mr Koschnick has brought us is a scam."