Briton Brings New Style to Post in Bosnia : Balkans: Lt. Gen. Smith becomes U.N. commander, quickly sees frustrations of the complex mission.

Within hours of first setting foot on Bosnian soil, the new U.N. commander in Bosnia-Herzegovina was faced with a crisis that many see as a metaphor for the utter impotence of international peacekeepers in Europe’s most deadly conflict since World War II.

Lt. Gen. Rupert Smith had barely hopped off a military jet delivering him to his new mission in Sarajevo when Bosnian Serbs stopped a U.N. armored personnel carrier and kidnaped a Bosnian Muslim journalist who was riding inside.

The man, Sarajevo-based television journalist Namik Berberovic, was carted off to a cell in a Serb-held Sarajevo suburb, another prisoner of war.

He should not have been exposed to such danger. The U.N. soldiers operating the vehicle, a shuttle service for civilians from the U.N.-controlled Sarajevo airport, were not supposed to pass through a Bosnian Serb checkpoint, were not supposed to stop if challenged by Bosnian Serbs and, least of all, were not supposed to open the vehicle door or allow passengers to be searched.

“This is our mistake,” U.N. spokesman Alexander Ivanko acknowledged.

When the same rules were broken in January, 1993, Bosnian Serbs manning the checkpoint--which the United Nations considers illegal but has not dismantled--stopped the shuttle and shot and killed Bosnian Deputy Prime Minister Hakija Turajlic.

For Smith, the inability of U.N. troops--once again--to protect a civilian dramatized the frustrations of a complex, contradictory mission that he begins to lead just as a cease-fire crumbles and peace talks dissolve.

A British veteran of the Persian Gulf War, Smith, 51, formally took charge on Jan. 24 of 24,000 troops from outgoing commander Lt. Gen. Michael Rose. Rose’s controversial tenure saw a successful halt to the worst bombardments of Sarajevo but also what many people believe was the sacrifice of Muslim civilian “safe areas” to Bosnian Serb attack.

Rose was vilified by Bosnian government officials for what they saw as his willingness to appease the Bosnian Serbs.

Smith, a parachute regiment officer who was decorated while commanding a rifle company in Northern Ireland, has not yet discussed publicly whether he will do things differently from his predecessor.

His style contrasts with that of Rose. Unlike the flamboyant Rose, Smith shuns publicity and is described by British military observers as a tactful diplomat.

“I’m pleased to take up the reins from my predecessor Michael Rose, to do what we can to give aid to the unfortunate and long-suffering people caught up in this conflict,” Smith said.

The kidnaping of Berberovic was only one of Smith’s problems.

The day after he arrived in Sarajevo, he got word that the latest talks aimed at settling the Bosnian war had broken down.

After a week of shuttle diplomacy between the Muslim-led Bosnian government in Sarajevo and the Serbian rebels in nearby Pale, the mediators, including American envoy Charles Thomas, returned to their capitals in empty-handed frustration.

Smith, whose Gulf War duty included command of the British 1st Armored Division that routed Iraq’s Republican Guard, has since met with leaders of both sides. But there has been no diplomatic movement.

To the contrary, some of the most serious violations of a cease-fire in effect since Jan. 1 were reported in Sarajevo, while fighting continued to rage in northwest Bosnia.

If the war continues to deteriorate and neighboring Croatia follows through with its threat to expel the United Nations from its headquarters and logistic base, Smith may have the duty that few military commanders envy: overseeing the withdrawal of his troops, the mission incomplete.

Times staff writer William Tuohy in London contributed to this report.