BOSNIA-HERCEGOVINA: Ceasefire Signing Delayed, Negotiations Go On

SARAJEVO, Dic 23 (IPS) - U.N. envoy Yasushi Akashi continued talks with the government and rebel Serb leaders Friday after the noon deadline passed for a ceasefire to take effect throughout Bosnia- Hercegovina.

Akashi said he was still hopeful the agreement would be signed Friday despite a Bosnian Serb demand for changes in two key paragraphs.

Under the terms of the ceasefire agreement, the two sides are to complete talks by Jan 1 on a four-month cessation of hostilities.

Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter, who brokered the proposed deal earlier this week, said after meetings with the Bosnian government in Sarajevo and the Bosnian Serb officials at their headquarters in Pale, that he was hopeful a final settlement could be reached by the new year.

Sarajevans counted the minutes to the signing, after a fatal reminder Thursday that until any deal is formalised, their lives are in danger.

A 22-year-old Sarajevan policeman and a street vendor at the outdoor market near Crier's Square died in a mortar barrage that left seven others wounded as the death toll continued to climb from the violence that erupted following the break-up of former Yugoslavia.

Two mortar bombs slammed into the marketplace situated less than half-kilometre away from the Markale market, site of last February's gruesome mortar bombing in which 68 residents were killed by a single shell.

Across the road from the stricken market, just ten yards from where the second shell landed, 61 year-old Harudin Sahic was opening his hat shop when the first round hit. He dove for cover under his sewing machine moments before the second round exploded.

"I heard the explosion and the screams," said Sahic, whose wife was killed by a shell in her apartment in March 1993. "Then the taxi drivers came and started taking them to the hospital.

"(Serbian President Slobodan) Milosevic said that there will be peace and the war will end," said Sahic, a hat-maker. "Whenever they say the word peace, go immediately to your shelter."

Friday was quiet in Sarajevo as negotiations continued and Bosnian officials picked up the pieces from Thursday's attack.

© Inter Press Service (2014) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service