ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Thursday, September 19, 1996           TAG: 9609190054
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL   PAGE: A-9  EDITION: METRO 
DATELINE: SARAJEVO, BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA
SOURCE: Associated Press

VOTERS IN BOSNIA CAST BALLOT FOR UNITY MUSLIM'S WIN MAY BE REASON TO HOPE

A glimmer of hope that Bosnia can stay whole emerged Wednesday, with presidential election results showing Muslims united around their leader and a surprising number of Serbs abandoning extreme nationalism.

After a campaign that played on divisions wrought by 31/2 years of war, Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic won the most votes for the three-person presidency in Saturday's elections - 729,034 votes.

His Muslim Party for Democratic Action had insisted that Bosnia remain united and multiethnic - even though it adopted increasingly nationalist tones during the campaign.

Izetbegovic, 72 and with a history of heart trouble, will be chairman of the presidency for a two-year term. He will be the point man for international officials eager to help knit the divided country together again.

His success could determine how long a NATO-led peace force stays in Bosnia. The current force, some 48,000 troops from 35 countries, including 15,000 Americans, arrived last December for a year. A smaller force seems certain to stay on.

``We will not abandon Bosnia,'' NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana vowed Wednesday in Brussels, Belgium. He refused to speculate on the post-December mission.

In Sarajevo, hundreds of honking cars jammed the streets Wednesday, with green-and-white ruling party flags flapping and passengers flashing victory signs. Bystanders waved and cheered.

Izetbegovic, first elected president in 1990, appeared briefly outside his office, smiling and shaking hands with the crowd.

``Today, for the first time after four years, Bosnia-Herzegovina is reunited,'' exulted Mirza Hajric, a top Izetbegovic aide.

International officials met with Izetbegovic and urged him to cooperate with his Serb and Croat partners in the presidency - Momcilo Krajisnik, who received 690,373 votes, and the Croats' Kresimir Zubak, who won 342,007.

Zubak pledged to honor the Dayton treaty commitments to peace and democracy and spoke optimistically of the future. ``I think that we will bring the Bosnian crisis to an end in the next two years,'' he said.

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