
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, July 29, 1993                   TAG: 9307290069
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: GENEVA                                LENGTH: Short

BOSNIAN ENEMIES MEET ALONE

In what was seen as a breakthrough, leaders of Bosnia's three warring sides met in direct talks without mediators late Wednesday to bargain on the future division of the battered republic.

The Muslim-led government is under pressure to accept a Serb-Croat plan to divide Bosnia-Herzegovina along ethnic lines.

As the leaders met, their forces continued to fight. Outgunned government troops clashed with Serbs near Sarajevo, Brcko and Maglaj; and with Croats in central Bosnia.

In Washington, President Clinton said the United States would quickly commit air power to protect peacekeeping forces in Bosnia if the United Nations so requests.

Wednesday's talks apparently centered on maps of boundaries among Serb, Croat and Muslim ethnic ministates. No details emerged immediately.

"We had very open, very direct and, I must say, very hard talks on the essence of the matter," Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic told reporters. "We created conditions for a solution. . . . I think we will find a solution."

Mediators and leaders were to meet again today to try to end the 16-month-old war.

- Associated Press

by CNB