Bosnia Serb Bid to Renegotiate Peace Plan Fails

Bosnia’s Serbs sought Monday to renegotiate part of the peace plan that the United States and its allies drafted for Bosnia-Herzegovina, but the major powers quickly rejected the move, leaving the peacemaking effort at an impasse.

State Department spokesman Mike McCurry dismissed the Serbian proposal as “a non-starter,” saying that it is “up to the Bosnian Serbs now to agree to the plan put forward to them by the (five-power) Contact Group.”

Three other Contact Group members--France, Britain and Germany--took similar positions.

Monday’s exchange did little to alter the standoff that has prevailed since the Bosnian Serbs rebuffed the allies on their latest peace proposal two weeks ago. The major powers have threatened to intensify their pressure on the Serbs but so far have taken no new steps.

Meanwhile, in Sarajevo, lower-level negotiators for the Serbs and the Muslim-led Bosnian government continued their talks over reopening roads, releasing prisoners and ending sniping, but they apparently made little progress. Two more people were wounded by snipers Monday.

Separately, in Belgrade, Russian Foreign Minister Andrei V. Kozyrev intensified pressure on the government of neighboring Serbia to intervene in the process, telling Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic that he must get the Bosnian Serbs to accept the allied plan if he wants U.N. sanctions against Serbia lifted.

The added pressure from Russia, the fifth member of the Contact Group and a traditional ally of the Serbs, came a day after Milosevic issued his strongest warning yet to Bosnian Serbs that if they do not comply, Belgrade may cut off the weapons, food, fuel and money they need. Milosevic and Kozyrev met Sunday.

The Bosnian Serbs’ bid to reopen negotiations over the peace plan was expected. The proposal, which would partition the country almost evenly between Bosnia’s Serbs and a Muslim-Croatian federation, has been endorsed by the Bosnian government but rejected by the Serbs.

The United States and its allies vowed last month to take military action if the Serbs spurned their plan. But they retreated from that threat in a meeting Saturday, warning vaguely of stern consequences without offering specifics.

Analysts said Monday that it was clear the allies’ warning had failed to convince the Bosnian Serbs that the major powers are serious about imposing the partition plan.

Senior Clinton Administration officials, distressed by descriptions of the allies’ action as backtracking, argued Monday that the allies’ mild approach was intentional, to enable the major powers to lift the arms embargo on the Muslims more quickly.

But the officials conceded that not all four other governments in the Contact Group had agreed to end the embargo if the Bosnian Serbs continue to reject the allied peace plan.