Muslims, Croats Vow Military Cooperation

Bosnia’s Muslim and Croatian leaders agreed Tuesday to integrate the command structure of their separate armies and create joint economic institutions, steps intended to solidify their shaky federation, which U.S. officials consider critical to Balkan peace.

The agreements reached during a daylong meeting at Blair House, across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House, are designed to clear the way for the United States to start equipping and training federation military forces to bring them up to the level of the rival Bosnian Serb army.

The factional leaders also agreed on economic structures demanded by Washington and the European Union as a condition for investment and economic aid.

The agreements are intended to move war-ravaged Bosnia-Herzegovina beyond the current uneasy coexistence toward real peace. The Serbs, who control almost half of the country, were not represented at Blair House. U.S. officials view a functioning federation as the key to long-term stability.

President Clinton ordered Commerce Secretary Mickey Kantor to lead a business delegation to the Balkans, resuming the mission that cost the life of former Commerce Secretary Ronald H. Brown last month. Kantor’s group will include officials of some of the same companies that lost executives when Brown’s plane crashed in Croatia.

Secretary of State Warren Christopher, who presided over the talks, said the Blair House meeting solved “many, although not all,” of the problems plaguing the federation.

Under the Dayton, Ohio, accord that ended Bosnia’s bitter 3 1/2-year war, the federation controls about 51% of the territory of Bosnia; Bosnian Serbs control the other 49%. The federation links two ethnic groups with little in common but their hatred of the Serbs.

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Although the Dayton accord retained the national government of Bosnia and gave it responsibility for foreign relations, almost all government powers were divided between the federation and the Serbs.

At U.S. urging, the Muslims and Croats created their federation two years ago. But a senior U.S. official said that for most of the federation’s life, it “was nothing more than a cease-fire” between factions that were fighting each other as well as the Serbs.

On Tuesday, the leaders agreed to integrate the top command of the separate armies and to create a joint civilian-led defense ministry. They also agreed to combine other military units within three years. Separate Muslim and Croatian units will continue to exist, although they will report to the same high command.

Washington had demanded military integration, at least at top levels, as a condition for equipping and training the Muslim-Croat army. A U.S. official said the Clinton administration is not prepared to train two separate--and frequently antagonistic--armies.

Federation President Kresimir Zubak, a Croat, said the latest agreements will allow the Muslims and Croats to rebuild the country. Although previous agreements designed to strengthen the federation have been ignored by both factions, Zubak said: “We will fulfill our obligations, especially the ones we undertook today.”

Speaking for the Muslims, Ejup Ganic, vice president both of the federation and the Muslim-led central government, said of the Blair House talks: “Logic prevailed and we made good progress.”

He also extended a tentative olive branch to the Serbs: “There is no Bosnia without Serbs. We look forward to working with the Serbs. We must learn, as we did in the past, to live together.”

The federation also agreed to establish, by the end of this month, integrated economic institutions including a central bank, a joint budget, a unified tax and tariff system and an agency to turn government-owned businesses over to private citizens.