Commanders OK Holiday Truce in Bosnia, Croatia
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SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina — Military commanders agreed Friday on Christmas truces in Croatia and Bosnia, providing at least a flicker of hope for holiday peace in the former Yugoslav federation.
Announcement of the two separate agreements coincided with new talks to try to end a war that has killed an estimated 200,000 people in Bosnia-Herzegovina and left more than 2 million homeless.
With new peace talks scheduled next week, the prime minister of Bosnia’s Muslim-led government, Haris Silajdzic, met in Vienna with international mediators and representatives of the European Community.
EC officials said afterward that Bosnian Serbs and Croats needed to make concessions to the besieged Muslims before any peace deal could be made.
The mediators, U.N. envoy Thorvald Stoltenberg and EC negotiator Lord Owen, then flew to the Yugoslav capital, Belgrade.
The surprising presence of former Croatian Prime Minister Hrvoje Sarinic in Belgrade was a likely indication that Serbs and Croats, who favor dividing Bosnia into three ethnically based ministates, are pursuing a common policy and trying to make the Bosnian government accept it.
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