AN exodus of Serbs from Sarajevo was under way yesterday with dozens of cars and trucks clogging the roads around the city in areas due to revert to the control of the mainly Muslim government.
Early yesterday morning, on the flooded and potholed roads that thread together the Serb held areas ringing the city, a steady "flow of traffic splashed its way to the main routes leading away from the capital.
Since the signing of the Dayton peace accords in December, where it became clear that the Serb held areas would revert to government control, there has been a slow but constant flow of people away from the Serb held districts. Aid officials estimate that so 15,000-20,000 people have male ready left but that some 40,000-150,000 remained.
However yesterday the pace appeared to have picked up following an announcement on official Bosnian Serb television that an organised exodus was being arranged from midday.
The announcement comes three days before the first government police, formally known as Federation police forces, staff patrols in a Serb held suburb.
Thousands of non Serbs driven from their homes in these areas during the siege of Sarajevo are expected to start returning as the suburbs revert to government control.
In The Hague yesterday a spokesman for the international criminal tribunal on former Yugoslavia announced that a case against the Croatian Serb leader Mr Milan Martic over the shelling of Zagreb would open at the on February 27th.
However because Mr Martic will not be present at the public session, it will concentrate on hearing witness accounts in order to formally indict Mr Martic and will not pass any judgment.
The tribunal accused him last July of bombarding the Croatian capital when separatist Serbs still held the Knin region.
A warrant was issued for his arrest and sent to authorities in the Bosnian Serb stronghold of Pale as well as Sarajevo and Belgrade, but he has remained free.
Serb authorities in the north Bosnian town of Doboj meanwhile have issued arrest warrants for 461 Muslims accused of war crimes, the Yugoslav news agency Tanjug said yesterday.
Security services have accused the Muslims of holding Serbs in prison camps and bombing civilian targets in the regions of Doboj, Bosanski Brod and Odzak in the north, the news agency said.