Cease-Fire Takes Effect In Bosnia
What the world hopes will become a permanent cease-fire for Bosnia finally took effect early today, despite frantic last-minute battles for territory.
The U.S.-brokered truce took effect Thursday at one minute after midnight (4:01 p.m. PDT Wednesday), U.N. officials said.
They said it probably would take hours for orders to reach field commanders, making it likely that fighting would taper off overnight rather than end suddenly.
The 60-day truce, part of a U.S.-led effort to bring peace to the Balkans, was delayed for 48 hours while engineers tried to restore utilities to Sarajevo and armies battled for the final bits of territory.
The Muslim-led government and its Croat allies seized two Serb-held towns in northwest Bosnia before setting a firm time for the truce to begin.
Hours before the truce, the government was reportedly still advancing toward a third town, Prijedor, in northwest Bosnia. And Serbs were rushing to expel up to 20,000 non-Serbs remaining in northern Bosnia.
Bosnian Foreign Minister Muhamed Sacirbey, speaking in Brussels, Belgium, said the truce could be endangered if the expulsions continued.
“The cease-fire and the peace process are in jeopardy if the ethnic cleansing is not confronted,” he said. The U.S. State Department said it was “exceedingly concerned” about the reports.
While Sarajevo, still ringed by hostile Serb forces, remained cut off from the outside world, the cease-fire agreement appeared to have secured it limited supplies of gas and electricity. But water was still short because of electrical pumping problems.
Another condition of the cease-fire - stable routes to the government enclave of Gorazde - had not yet been met. It could take days for the United Nations to clear mines.
But, in contrast to dozens of cease-fires that have failed since 1992, all sides appeared serious about making this one work. The truce is to lead to negotiations in the United States at the end of the month and a later peace conference in Paris.
In Brussels, NATO policymakers on Wednesday approved an action plan for a peace force in Bosnia that could include up to 50,000 troops - one-third to one-half of them being American.
The U.S.-brokered truce, signed Oct. 5, originally was scheduled to take force early Tuesday, but natural gas and electricity were not restored in time.
It appeared, however, that the government also had been stalling to buy time for its army. Offensives were reported in at least four locations. Two key Serb-held towns in northwestern Bosnia, Sanski Most and Mrkonjic Grad, were reported to have fallen.