Bosnia, Troops Brace For Election Today’s Vote Could Unite Muslims, Serbs Or Reignite War

The stubborn international effort to stitch Bosnia back together culminates today, when Bosnians vote in an election that could unite the country’s two halves or tear them farther apart.

In a fitting close to a surreal campaign, the Bosnian Serb president was forced to apologize Friday for stating the obvious: Many Serbs want to live in their own country, without Muslims or Croats.

The apology, ordered by international officials, reflects the obstacles facing Western diplomats, who hoped the election would seal a peace process that began nine months ago in Dayton, Ohio.

Some worry the election could undo the peace process instead, stirring up ethnic hatreds and dividing the country even further after the 3-1/2-year war.

The election results will help determine whether the NATO-led peace force extends its one-year mission in the country.

Troops were readied Friday for possible election violence, observers were dispatched to polling points and passenger buses commandeered to make sure rival Muslim, Croats and Serbs would vote in peace in the first postwar national elections.

The vote will send Muslims and Croats into Serb-held areas in large numbers for the first time since the end of the war. They have been warned to stick to established roads and not to pay visits to their former homes.

More than 48,000 peace troops, 1,700 U.N. police monitors, 1,200 international supervisors and up to 800 independent observers are on hand to provide security.

The apology by Bosnian Serb leader Biljana Plavsic marked the second time in less than a week that the international group running the elections took action against the leading Serb Democratic Party for violating election laws.

Plavsic, who succeeded Radovan Karadzic this summer as party chief, acknowledged in an interview earlier this week that Bosnian Serbs’ ultimate goal is to unite in a Greater Serbia.

On Friday, Plavsic calmly read her apology on Bosnian Serb television, saying her party “will work for a Bosnia-Herzegovina in which Serbs, Croats and Muslims will be able to live together in peace and with dignity.”