Osmo Selimbasic has come to be friends with the U.N. police officers who stop by his house for coffee, tousle the hair of his three kids and ask about local troubles in this northeastern Bosnian village. Besides that, the officers have helped bring peace to this hamlet of 25 homes nestled in a mountain pass some 25 miles from the capital, Sarajevo. So the reports that the United States may abandon the U.N. police mission Wednesday because of an unrelated dispute both surprised -- and hurt him. "Every day the U.N. police patrol our village," the 33-year-old Bosnian Muslim said. "If they go, there would again be floods of refugees, running away from Bosnia -- and running away to an uncertain future." All over Bosnia, in villages like Brateljevici, people who have watched the 1,500-strong U.N. police help establish order and train local officers are alarmed that the United States vetoed efforts to extend their mission in Bosnia. The Americans agreed to a 72-hour extension, however, to try to find a solution to demands that U.S. peacekeepers be exempt from prosecution by the new international war crimes tribunal. The deadline is Wednesday. Many here fear that other nations will waver in their support of peace efforts in this Balkan country struggling to overcome the legacy of 3½ years of war. During those years, the residents of this mountain village have come to know a daily ritual: the two U.N. policemen and a translator drive up the winding mountain road in their white truck, pull over by the village's only store and step out for a chat and a stroll. They've met Officer John from Missouri and Officer Peter from Germany, as well as a bunch of others whose names don't immediately spring to mind. The officers declined to be interviewed by The Associated Press, citing rules laid out by the mission. But the locals say the hours of small talk and coffee-drinking have created a bond of sorts between their village and these outsiders. The officers, who wear blue uniforms with a patch showing the flag of their home country on their shoulders, offer a measure of security -- even though none carry weapons. Their mere presence helps in an area where ethnic tensions still exist among Muslims and Serbs who live near the charred remains of homes ripped apart by shelling during the 1992-1995 war. Besides that, the officers are friendly -- a departure from the oppressive and often brutal police units that have characterized the Balkans in the past. Villagers say that local officers still haven't learned the courtesy part of the job. "Our local policemen are unjust and corrupt," said 22-year-old Sanela Fazlic, a Muslim. "We feel safer when we can see the U.N. officers patrolling around." Under the Dayton peace accord that ended the war, the U.N. International Police Task Force was charged with demobilizing about half of the 40,000-strong Serb, Croat and Muslim police force -- and with weeding out those officers suspected of corruption or having committed war crimes. They were also asked to create a 17,000-member professional, multiethnic local force that would measure up to international standards of democratic law enforcement. If a solution is not found to the U.S. impasse, the entire U.N. mission would close now instead of on Dec. 31, when it was set to hand over its duties to the European Union. Michael Doyle, an analyst with the International Crisis Group think tank, believes that an early end to the U.N. mission would hurt Bosnia's efforts to create a lasting peace characterized by respect for human rights. Doyle said that leaving the local police to guarantee law and order for six months "will set back the police reforms at least a couple of years." Osman Ljutija, a 64-year-old retiree, shook his head as he thought about how far the country had come since the peace deal was signed in 1995. As he stood in front of his house beside his wife, he looked at the chickens pecking at the dust -- and wondered if times might once again become troubled. "These U.N. officers have always helped us," he said. "If they are not here, we might have war again."