Balkan Leaders Pledge Steps to Assure Fair Bosnian Vote

Glossing over growing international skepticism and their own history of failing to keep promises, the presidents of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia pledged new steps Wednesday to assure free, fair elections in Bosnia next month and agreed to abide by the results.

U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher, who presided over the daylong Balkan summit, said the meeting “moved us a little closer to our goal of a unified, democratic Bosnia at peace.”

On paper, the communique issued by Presidents Alija Izetbegovic of Bosnia, Franjo Tudjman of Croatia and Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia appears to complete a peace process begun last year in Dayton, Ohio. But, as U.S. officials were quick to emphasize, deeds are far more important than the words of the statement, many of which echo earlier, failed pacts.

Izetbegovic, Tudjman and Milosevic said they will order local authorities and police to stop interfering with refugees seeking to return to former homes to vote; they agreed to authorize the North Atlantic Treaty Organization-led international force to establish “a secure environment” if the parties fail to do so.

The presidents also pledged to end restrictions on the media. In addition, they agreed to allow an independent radio and television network--established with $10 million in contributions from the United States, the European Union and Japan--to go on the air by the end of this month, two weeks before the Sept. 14 elections.

At the same time, Izetbegovic and Tudjman agreed to abolish the separate Bosnian Muslim and Bosnian Croat ministates, transferring virtually all government authority to the Muslim-Croat federation by the end of this month. At Dayton, the federation was awarded 51% of the country’s territory, but it has never functioned as a government because of ethnic tensions between Muslims and Croats.

Muslim and Croatian leaders have made and broken similar commitments, but this time they agreed that if they do not resolve remaining disputes by Saturday, they will allow the United States and international mediator Carl Bildt to make binding decisions. “We told them that ‘If you will not do it your way, you will have to do it our way,’ ” a senior U.S. official said.

The three presidents agreed to select Roberts Owen, an American lawyer, as arbitrator of a boundary dispute between the federation and the Bosnian Serb entity involving the northeastern town of Brcko and its surroundings. The issue was left for binding arbitration at Dayton, but the Serbs have blocked action so far.

Although Christopher and his aides were upbeat after the talks, there was growing concern that the Bosnian elections will not be fair and that the end result will be to solidify partition of the country into three ethnically pure ministates.

“With just one month before the elections, freedom of movement is not guaranteed, the return of refugees is still being hampered, and the attempts to create ethnically pure states continue to prevail,” said Swiss Foreign Minister Flavio Cotti, this year’s chairman of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Cotti attended the Balkan summit.

In London, the private International Crisis Group chaired by former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell (D-Maine) demanded a postponement of the elections because conditions for them have not been met. As Nicholas Hinton, president of the multinational crisis-resolution group, observed: “The only potential beneficiaries of elections under current conditions will be the nationalist leaders who brought this country to bloodshed in the first place.”

U.S. officials were especially stung by suggestions that the elections will ratify division of the country. On Tuesday, Christopher seemed to harbor similar reservations when he said the elections will allow Bosnians “to develop, if they wish to do so, a multiethnic society.” But officials conceded that if ethnic nationalists win the elections, there was nothing much the international community could do.

Times staff writer William D. Montalbano in London contributed to this report.

* AIRPORT OPENING: Civilian traffic is to resume today at Sarajevo field. A6