Balkan Leaders Renew Pledges to Uphold Peace Pact

After two days of often bitter exchanges and intense international pressure, Bosnia’s warring factions recommitted themselves Sunday to the accord that has brought an uneasy peace to the troubled Balkan region.

“In Rome, we’ve avoided a crisis,” U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke said at a news conference after the hastily scheduled summit of three Balkan leaders here.

Easing fears that the accord was in danger of unraveling in the wake of a series of violations in recent weeks, the presidents of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia and Croatia plus Bosnian Serb and Bosnian Croat representatives:

* Pledged to resume all official contacts called for in the Dayton, Ohio, accord, a move that is expected to bring the Bosnian Serbs back into all-party committees set up to monitor the implementation of both the military and civilian aspects of the agreement.

* Issued a joint statement on Sarajevo that appealed to Bosnian Serbs not to flee the Bosnian capital, gave assurances that Serbs’ rights will be protected after the Muslim-Croat federation assumes control of Serb-held suburbs and offered Serbs the chance “to participate fully in the governance of the city.”

* Agreed to provide unrestricted access to places and individuals linked to the investigation and prosecution of suspected war criminals.

Holbrooke stressed after the meeting--which he in effect arranged--that no concessions had been made to any party to win the commitments. He confirmed, however, that economic sanctions against the Bosnian Serbs are likely to be suspended soon.

While last year’s Dayton agreement technically allows such a move now that Serbian units have effectively withdrawn behind newly drawn lines of control, the timing was seen by some observers as a de facto concession.

Separately--and also of pivotal importance--Bosnian Croat and Muslim leaders grudgingly agreed to accept a European Union plan for the integration of ethnically troubled Mostar as a unified city and requested a six-month extension of the EU’s mandate to administer Bosnia’s second-largest city.

That plan had been rejected last week by Croats, angry that they were going to be forced to share a central zone of the city with Muslims. It sparked violence, threats and physical harassment directed at the EU’s resident administrator, Hans Koschnik, and seemed to endanger the very fabric of the larger Muslim-Croat relationship, whose stability is considered vital if the Dayton accord is to succeed.

In addition, Muslims and Croats agreed to deploy a unified police force in the southern city beginning Tuesday and to allow complete freedom of movement to residents.

Relations between Muslims and Croats in the city deteriorated sharply after the threat of their common enemy--the Bosnian Serbs--was diminished by the Dayton agreement.

According to Western participants in the Rome talks, the Mostar issue was discussed in a poisonous, emotional atmosphere.

“It was gruesome,” said one source present during the talks. He said the issue consumed the final three hours of Sunday’s nine-hour meeting.

Conspicuously, Croatian President Franjo Tudjman, often seen as the leader best able to influence Bosnian Croats, left the Rome meeting before the Mostar issue was discussed.

Despite the difficult nature of the Rome talks, Holbrooke declared them a success.

“This was Dayton’s first real test, a challenge on several fronts,” he said. “I believe we passed the test, but it wasn’t easy.”

Aware of the gap that frequently arises in Balkan diplomacy between commitments made and commitments kept, both Holbrooke and former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt, who is in charge of international efforts to stabilize and rebuild Bosnia’s social fabric and its economy, stressed the need to put the agreements made in Rome into effect.

“It’s been a good weekend, but what really counts isn’t agreements negotiated, it’s agreements implemented,” Bildt said. “We’ve lost time in the last few weeks. We can’t afford to lose more.”

With the North Atlantic Treaty Organization-led peacekeeping force of 60,000 troops now fully deployed, but with only a one-year mandate to keep the peace, international mediators feel a sense of urgency to begin both the physical reconstruction and the emotional reconciliation required to put Bosnia back together into a viable political entity.

Diplomats said the joint statement on Sarajevo, issued under the names of Tudjman, Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic and Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic, would be broadcast throughout the capital Sunday in hopes it might halt an exodus of Serbs, who have begun fleeing suburbs scheduled to revert from Serbian to Muslim-Croat control next month.

“Sarajevo will be a city open in itself and to the outside,” the statement said in part. “Serbs in Sarajevo will also be assured participation in local self-rule.”

Holbrooke said that meetings similar to the Rome session will be required in the months ahead in order to keep the peace process from falling apart, and he indicated that the three Balkan presidents agreed to more frequent direct contact.

“You’re going to need this regular injection--meetings that bring people together at a single site and push,” one senior U.S. official said.