BOSNEWS digest 454 - 02/11/95

From: Davor <[email protected]>

Bosnia-Herzegovina News Directory

From: Davor <[email protected]>

BOSNEWS Digest 454

CONTENTS

[01] Peace Talks

Nov 2., 1995 WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio

Secretary of State Warren Christopher set the tone for the talks Wednesday with a warning to those gathered for the meeting. "If we fail, the war will resume and future generations will surely hold us accountable for the consequences that would follow," he said.

"To the three presidents, I say to you that it's within your power to chart a better course for the future of the people of former Yugoslavia," said Christopher. "The United States, the European Union and Russia, indeed, the entire international community will help you succeed. And while the world can and will help you to make peace, only you can ensure this process will succeed."

The United States, its Contact Group and European Union partners are all warning that the horrors of war will resume if the talks fail.

"After four years since the beginning of the tragedy in the Balkans, we have to recognize the painful fact that this conflict has brought nothing but grief, suffering and destruction, " said Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov. "There have been no winners in this war, nor could there have been any. Everyone has lost -- the Serbs, the Croats, the Muslims and Europe as a whole."

The opening session ended with a handshake between President Milosevic and Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic and a good mixing of their delegations.

[02] Clinton - US Congress - Bosnia

Nov 2., 1995 WASHINGTON, United States

A group of bipartisan Congressional leaders met with President Clinton at the White House Wednesday to talk about Bosnia. Republican Senate Leader Bob Dole emerged from the meeting with the President to say Mr. Clinton realizes he has work to do to persuade Americans to support sending US troops to Bosnia.

Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich says both Republicans and Democrats agree that previous administration meetings with lawmakers have not been sufficient.

White House Spokesman Mike Mccurry admits the President has more work to do to convince Americans of his commitment to provide troops to a peacekeeping force.

"We acknowledge that as members of Congress get deeper into the subject, as the American people become more aware of the challenge that we are going to face in Bosnia, that there will be serious questions that have to be answered."

Although the President says he wants Congressional support for his decision, he has made clear he does not need it, and would act on his own authority as Commander In Chief to send troops if necessary.

Outside the White House, about a dozen demonstrators protested against the participation of Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic in the talks.

[03] What With Eastern Slavonia?

Nov 2., 1995 DAYTON, Ohio

Before flying back to Washington, Secretary Of State Warren Christopher held a separate meeting with Croatian President Franjo Tudjman and Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic about the disputed region of Eastern Slavonia. The two Presidents pledged to work to normalize their relations and to work for a peaceful resolution of the dispute.

State Department Spokesman Nicholas Burns believes the high-level attention will help resolve the issue.

"I think what's important here is that the two Presidents have committed themselves publicly in this joint statement to resolve it peacefully and to use Dayton to do so."

U.S. ambassador to Croatia Peter Galbraith and U.N. negotiator Thorvald Stoltenberg will travel to Eastern Slavonia late this week. The seeming urgency in dealing with the problem is because Tudjman returns to Zagreb Thursday and he has put a November 30 deadline on solving the issue, threatening to retake the territory by force.

[04] Nationalist Serbs Hold "CSM" Journalist

Nov 2., 1995 WASHINGTON, United States

The UN has confirmed that nationalist Bosnian Serbs are holding American journalist David Rohde, who has been missing since Sunday. They said the 28-year old reporter is alive, and they are calling for his release. Mr. Rohde's editor at the Christian Science Monitor, Clayton Jones, welcomed that news and said UN officials are keeping him up to date.

"THE UN has been meeting with Serb officials in Pale and we are using other back channels to find out about David's whereabouts and his condition."

He added the reporter probably angered the Serbs when he secretly visited Srebrenica soon after the Serbs captured that Muslim enclave in July. David Rohde then wrote and talked about the mass graves he found there.

US State Department officials have assured Rohde's family that they brought up the case in talks in Dayton, Ohio, with Serbia's President Slobodan Milosevic.

[05] Thursday's Editorials

Nov 2., 1995 WASHINGTON, United States

Talking about the peace talks on Bosnia Thursday's "The Miami Herald" intertwines the history of flight with the current undertaking.

"As they face each other in Dayton, Ohio ... the Presidents of Bosnia, Serbia, and Croatia would do well to remember how two humble bicycle-shop owners in Dayton changed history by doing the impossible. Some thought the two tinkerers crazy for trying to build a flying machine. But ... it flew. Wright-Patterson Air Force base ... is named in part for them... In the absence of amity under which these talks began yesterday, it would be as rash to predict that chief US negotiator Richard Holbrooke will succeed as it was to predict, in 1903, that Wilbur and Orville Wright would fly."

"The Portland Press Herald" from Maine adds its voice to the discussion, noting:

"It is not enough that the three Balkan Presidents implement a peace in their talks at Dayton. The souls of more than 200-thousand slaughtered innocents demand they implement justice as well."