Serbs, Bosnians Sign Cease-Fire That May Bring 4-Month Truce Separate Pact May End Fighting In Besieged Bihac Region
Serb leaders on Saturday joined the Bosnian government in signing a crucial U.N.-brokered cease-fire agreement that could bring a fourmonth truce to Bosnia.
The chief U.N. envoy to Bosnia also announced a separate agreement for the Bihac area of northwestern Bosnia, where fighting continued this week despite a one-week truce between government forces and their Serb enemies. That truce expired Saturday.
The new, broader accord came after a week of intense shuttle diplomacy by Lt. Gen. Sir Michael Rose, the U.N. commander in Bosnia.
“This achievement is a wonderful New Year’s gift for the inhabitants of this war-torn country,” U.N. Secretary-General Boutros BoutrosGhali said in a statement issued in New York.
“Life here is going to change a lot with this agreement,” said Yasushi Akashi, the U.N. special envoy to the former Yugoslavia.
The agreement, reached on the 1,000th day of the siege of Sarajevo, calls for silencing the guns across Bosnia at least until May. The nearly 3-year-old war has left at least 200,000 people dead or missing.
The truce, which takes effect at noon Sunday, also calls for a separation of forces, freedom of movement for all U.N. operations and complete restoration of utilities.
It also includes the withdrawal of “all foreign troops,” in particular Croatian Serb forces who have been fighting with rebel Muslims against the Bosnian army around Bihac.
Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic and Cmdr. Rasim Delic signed the document first. Akashi and Rose then took it to the Serb stronghold in Pale, just east of Sarajevo, where Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and Gen. Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb commander signed their names.
“Every war has to end in a way, and if today is the day of the beginning of the end of this war, we welcome it,” Karadzic said.
“We are ready to negotiate a stable, political solution, so we could turn from politics to economy, democracy, development of society and the stabilization of the Balkans.”
Mladic said, “This is a big step toward peace, but I think that it could be even bigger if all sides in this conflict would sign it.” He was referring to the Bosnian Croats and neighboring Croatia, which Bosnian Serb leaders insist has soldiers in Bosnia.
There was a separate cease-fire with the forces of anti-government Muslim warlord Fikret Abdic in Bihac, about 90 miles northwest of Sarajevo, Akashi said.
U.N. officials say the one-week cease-fire generally held except around Bihac, which is held by the Muslim-led government.
On Saturday, an artillery shell exploded near Bihac and nine shells in the nearby town of Velika Kladusa, said U.N. spokesman Alexander Ivanko.
Under the terms of Saturday’s accord, Croatian Serb forces have to withdraw from the Bihac region, Akashi said. He said “all sides” agreed to assist the United Nations in achieving this.
The agreement also created a joint commission chaired by Rose to oversee the separation of forces. A meeting was set for Sunday at Sarajevo airport.