U.S. In Deeper In Bosnia Troops Taking Sides In Risky Bid For Peace

U.S. forces are on the spot in a power struggle that might seem to have little to do with them: indicted Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic vs. his former ally, Bosnian Serb President Biljana Plavsic.

At stake, however, is the peace that America fashioned for Bosnia. NATO is hoping to withdraw the more than 30,000 troops in its peace force by June 30, but international officials and Bosnians alike have been pressing for them to stay longer.

The United States and its allies believe the 1995 Dayton peace accord can work only if Karadzic is stripped of power and, if possible, brought to trial on international war crimes indictments.

And so they have weighed in on the side of Plavsic, an ardent Serb nationalist who now appears willing to keep such difficult-to-swallow Dayton promises as allowing Muslims and Croats back to the homes from which the Serbs brutally expelled them five years ago.

It’s a risky strategy, as became apparent when well-organized Serb crowds attacked U.S. soldiers in the town of Brcko on Thursday, leading the troops to fire warning shots and tear gas to regain control.

The troops had been sent to prevent clashes between Plavsic’s and Karadzic’s rival police factions.

But Karadzic’s supporters were swift to use the sudden appearance of foreign armored vehicles in Serb-held towns to whip up frenzy. They rang sirens to awaken citizens, then used local radio stations to call them out. Women and children were put in front, rock-throwing men behind them.

NATO leaders reacted quickly, meeting Friday to authorize the peace force to shut down any Bosnian media fomenting violence against the foreign troops.

Diplomats have been pushing for such action against Serb media for weeks.

Peace force commanders adamantly deny that their mandate has changed. But they are more deeply involved than they were.

This is the result of mounting frustration abroad that the billions of dollars and tens of thousands of soldiers, diplomats and aid workers poured into Bosnia have, in almost two years of hard work, been unable to secure a lasting peace after the 3-1/2-year war.

Confronted last spring with clear evidence that democracy was not being built and most refugees had not returned home, the 45 nations that monitor Dayton’s progress realized they would have to resort more to the only language clearly understood in Bosnia - force.

In late May, the governments approved a detailed plan of action, known as the Sintra declaration, after the town in Portugal in which it was passed. They then summoned the three members of Bosnia’s dysfunctional joint presidency - Muslim, Serb and Croat leaders - and told them to comply.

The Serb member, Momcilo Krajisnik, is chief aide to Karadzic. The two have no interest in the Dayton accords, and have made that ever clearer since the Sintra meeting.

Plavsic turned against them - not because she rejects their nationalism, but because she says she abhors how they enrich themselves, while most Bosnian Serbs are without jobs and have an average monthly income of only $40.

Plavsic controls the most populous half of the Serb state, which covers 49 percent of Bosnia. She has proved a convenient lever to try and get Dayton working.

But it is not clear that she will win the tussle with Karadzic. And the struggle probably will take months to resolve.

In the meantime, the foreign soldiers who are supposed to be going home in June are drawn onto her side by diplomats who need results but have few means to achieve them.

That raises the prospect of another extension of NATO’s stay in Bosnia. On Friday, the alliance’s secretary general, Javier Solana, said as much for the first time.