Signs of Deal to Split Bosnia Emerge After Faction Leaders Meet

Signs emerged of a possible deal to divide Bosnia-Herzegovina among its ethnic Serbs, Croats and Muslims after leaders of the former Yugoslav federation’s rival factions met at a lakeside mansion on Wednesday.

After a day of talks, Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and Croatian President Franjo Tudjman all gave upbeat assessments and indicated that key concessions had been made.

Bosnia’s Muslim President Alija Izetbegovic, clearly unhappy, said he walked out of the talks. It was not clear, however, whether he rejected outright the possible accords.

Tudjman said consensus was emerging that Bosnia should become a “federal state of three constituent peoples.”

Such a proposal would signal the demise of a plan drawn up by European Community envoy Lord Owen and former U.N. envoy Cyrus R. Vance to divide the republic into 10 semiautonomous provinces with a central government.

In eastern Bosnia, U.N. military observers entered the besieged Muslim enclave of Gorazde on Wednesday after 91 people were reported killed on what a local radio reporter called the town’s “most terrible day.” A U.N. spokesman said the eight-man team of observers had seen “considerable destruction.”

In central Bosnia, Muslim forces seized Kakanj from former Croat allies and rampaged through nearby Croat villages, uprooting 12,000 people, U.N. officials said Wednesday.