Croat troops desert from Bosnian army

There's been a mass desertion from the army of the Muslim-Croat Federation in Bosnia-Herzegovina, following a call by separatist Croat leaders.

Nineteen-hundred soldiers have left the barracks in the central town of Vitez.

Desertions have also been reported in Mostar.

The separatist Croat National Assembly had urged the troops to walk out after the NATO-led peacekeeping force, S-FOR, said soldiers who supported the separatists would lose their pay and pensions.

S-FOR say it doesn't expect any security problems over the desertions, but a BBC correspondent in Sarajevo says the political crisis in Bosnia has now acquired a military dimension. The separatists are trying to set up an autonomous Croat state inside Bosnia.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service