Bosnian Serb parliament speaker Momcilo Krajisnik
seen as key figure in weapons deal with Serbia

Film claims U.N. halted air strikes in exchange for
the release of hostage peacekeepers and refused to
use air power to defend Srebrenica refugees.

LONDON, May 29 (Reuter) - A senior figure in the Bosnian Serb leadership helped bring in arms from Serbia that were apparently used in one of the most horrific episodes of the war, according to a documentary to be broadcast today in Europe. The speaker of the Bosnian Serb parliament, Momcilo Krajisnik, is named as a key figure in getting arms that went to Serb forces which overran the mainly Moslem enclave of Srebrenica in eastern Bosnia last year.

Investigators from the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague are currently probing the extent of the slaughter that followed the Serb capture of Srebrenica, which was supposed to be a U.N. "safe area" until it fell last July.

Thousands of Moslem men are missing, believed to have been killed and buried in mass graves. Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and his military commander, Ratko Mladic, are both wanted by the U.N. tribunal on war crimes charges.

Krajisnik, a powerful figure in the Bosnian Serb hierarchy who now deals regularly with the NATO-led peace force, has not been indicted.

The documentary -- produced by Tamouz Media, Reuters Television and Point du Jour -- also says the United Nations made a tacit agreement with the Bosnian Serbs to stop air strikes in exchange for the release of U.N. peacekeepers seized as hostages last year.

Based on interviews, secret documents and transcripts of radio intercepts, the program says the French commander of U.N. forces in former Yugoslavia, General Bernard Janvier, then refused to use air power to defend Srebrenica from the Serbs.

The program says Krajisnik worked with his brother Mirko to bring explosives and ammunition into Bosnia from a Serbian munitions factory in the town of Kragujevac. Serbia, hoping for an end to crippling sanctions, promised the international community in mid-1994 that it would no longer supply the Bosnian Serbs with weapons.

Many Western and U.N. officials have long suspected that arms supplies continued despite that promise.

Momcilo Krajisnik denies breaking any laws but said in an interview for the program: "If I could ask you to publicise that one of the Serbs, in particular my brother, helped the Serbian people and imported the arms -- or as you say smuggled them -- I would be proud."

Referring to secret U.N. documents and Bosnian government military information, the program says men and materiel flowed across the border between Serbia and Bosnia in the weeks before Srebrenica was taken. It says Serbia gave high-level military support to the attack on Srebrenica.

The program is to be screened by Britain's Channel Four on Wednesday and will also be shown on French and Dutch television. It says that Janvier and U.N. special representative Yasushi Akashi failed to pass on clear warnings that Srebrenica, defended by some 400 Dutch U.N. soldiers, was about to fall.

Janvier refused to be interviewed for the program but Akashi said: "We were given an impossible mandate, we were given very insufficient resources to do the job."

Janvier was reluctant to use air power given the vulnerability of the peacekeepers, a reluctance which enraged the United States and brought him into conflict with the British commander of U.N. forces in Bosnia, General Rupert Smith.

When the Bosnian Serbs seized hundreds of U.N. peacekeepers last May in retaliation for limited NATO air strikes, Akashi said he authorized Janvier to meet Mladic for talks. While Akashi and other officials deny there was any formal deal, a senior French military source told the program there was "no option" for Janvier but to reach an informal understanding with Mladic.

The hostages would be released and there would be no more air strikes. Until the fall of Srebrenica prompted the international community to respond with the threat of major NATO strikes, that is exactly what happened.

Smith, who wanted to take a much tougher line with the Serbs, was furious but the documentary says he was overruled by Akashi. Smith also refused to be interviewed for the program.