U.S. Eases Sanctions Against Serb-Led Yugoslavia Bosnian Peace Talks Seem To Be Entering Crucial New Phase
The United States on Thursday announced a limited easing of sanctions against Serb-led Yugoslavia as a “humanitarian gesture” amid signs that the Bosnian peace negotiations outside Dayton, Ohio, were entering a crucial new phase.
In the first concrete breakthrough in a week of talks, leaders from Croatia and Bosnia initialed an agreement that would provide for the return of refugees, a joint customs union and freedom of movement between the different parts of the CroatMoslem federation. The federation was established under U.S. auspices in February 1994 as a political alliance against the Bosnian Serbs but has existed largely on paper.
State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns said that Secretary of State Warren Christopher will fly to Wright-Patterson Air Force Nase today in an attempt to push the negotiations forward. A U.S. official said Christopher would preside over a formal signing ceremony on the Croat-Moslem federation agreement between Bosnian President Ali Izetbegovic and Croatian President Franjo Tudjman.
After a week dominated by consultations within the different Balkan delegations over U.S. proposals for a comprehensive peace agreement, intensive face-to-face negotiations are now underway between the leaders of the warring parties.
Briefing reporters in Washington, Burns said the economic embargo against Yugoslavia will be partially lifted to permit the delivery of natural gas from Russia for home heating. He said Izetbegovic had supported a request by Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic for an easing of the embargo. Bosnia receives natural gas from Russia through the Serbian pipeline and therefore has an interest in the gas flowing normally.
Western diplomats said any further easing of the economic embargo against Yugoslavia, which has been in place since May 1992, will depend on progress toward a comprehensive peace agreement. Serbia and Croatia are reported to be close to an agreement to settle their border dispute on eastern Slavonia, which was seized from Croatia by the Yugoslav army in 1991.
According to a source familiar with the negotiations, Milosevic does not have serious objections to the removal from power of Bosnian Serb leaders who have been indicted on war crimes charges by the international tribunal in The Hague. Although it has received a lot of attention in the press, the war crimes issue is not expected to be a major obstacle to an agreement at Dayton.
The source added, however, that there are still big differences between Milosevic and Izetbegovic over the internal political arrangements for the Bosnian Serb entity known as “Republika Srpska”, or Serbian republic. Izetbegovic is strongly opposed to any step that would have the effect of legitimizing the present Bosnian Serb army.