Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, October 6, 1995 TAG: 9510060074
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ZAGREB, CROATIA LENGTH: Medium
The cease-fire accord was reached during the United States' strongest press yet for peace in Bosnia. President Clinton in Washington acknowledged that unresolved problems remained before it takes effect Tuesday. ``We need to be clear-eyed about this,'' he said. ``It matters what the parties do, not just what they say.''
NATO planners said they would hasten work on a military force to help enforce an eventual peace arrangement. The United States would commit roughly 20,000 troops, but would not enter Bosnia until a final peace deal is signed.
Citing progress toward peace, the United Nations announced it could cut its troops in Bosnia by 9,000, or one-third.
The U.S. official who negotiated the cease-fire, Assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke, shed his normally cautious demeanor Thursday after shuttling around the Balkans.
``Today marks another important step forward, undeniably a big step forward,'' Holbrooke told reporters in Zagreb, the Croatian capital. ``We're pleased with where we are.''
In the northern Serb stronghold Banja Luka, Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic said he saw no reason to take back by force territory Serbs recently have lost. ``We want peace, and we have to be practical,'' he said.
Under the agreement, signed by Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic and Bosnian Serb leaders including Karadzic, peace talks will begin in the United States on Oct. 25.
U.S. officials said the midnight Tuesday (7:01 p.m. EDT Monday) deadline to stop fighting might have to be extended if utilities are not restored to Sarajevo by then - a key demand of the Bosnian government.
Facing a fourth winter of war with Serbs still surrounding their capital, Bosnian officials insisted on secure supplies of gas and electricity. Utility lines go through Serb territory and repeatedly have been cut.
If the utility work cannot be done in time, the cease-fire will take effect the day after it is completed, Alexander Vershbow, special assistant to Clinton for European affairs, told reporters in Washington.
Holbrooke earlier had won agreement on a 51-49 percent division of Bosnia in favor of the government and its Croat allies, and a postwar power-sharing agreement.
The exact division of territory remains to be worked out, however, and the complex power-sharing arrangement risks a return to the ethnic-based paralysis that led to war in April 1992.
One of the major issues in creating a force to police a final peace settlement is how non-NATO countries such as Russia might be involved.
by CNB