Again, Mediators Try to Nudge Along Bosnian Talks
The world’s major powers launched yet another effort to jump-start Bosnian peace talks Tuesday, seizing on faint glimmers of hope from a wobbly cease-fire and a Bosnian Serb pledge to open roads into this embattled capital.
But even as mediators from the five-nation Contact Group rushed to rebel headquarters in the nearby town of Pale, U.N. officials reported a fresh barrage of attacks on the Muslim-held Bihac pocket in northwestern Bosnia-Herzegovina.
The flare-up in fighting after several relatively quiet days underscored the fragility of a four-month New Year’s cease-fire.
Tuesday’s round of diplomatic efforts came as a new U.N. commander formally took charge in Bosnia, replacing Lt. Gen. Michael Rose. Rose and his successor, Lt. Gen. Rupert Smith, were summoned to a meeting with U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali in Geneva to discuss the future of the troubled U.N. peacekeeping mission in the Balkans.
With many in Bosnia increasingly doubtful that the cease-fire will hold, representatives of the Contact Group--the United States, Britain, France, Germany and Russia--met for nearly six hours Tuesday with Serbian leaders in Pale. There were no immediate reports of success in their attempts to persuade the Serbs to accept a peace plan for divvying up Bosnian territory.
The diplomats apparently embarked on Tuesday’s mission having found encouraging signs in a Monday agreement by the Serbs and the government to open vital supply roads into Sarajevo next Wednesday.
More to Read
Sign up for Essential California
The most important California stories and recommendations in your inbox every morning.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.