Bosnia, Yugoslavia Agree to Full Diplomatic Relations

In a surprise move hailed as a critical step toward building peace in the Balkans, the presidents of Serbia and Bosnia agreed Thursday to open full diplomatic relations between their two countries.

The bitter wartime enemies, holding their first-ever bilateral meeting, announced that they will exchange ambassadors, permit their citizens to travel to each other’s country without visas and open rail and road connections.

In addition, Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, representing Yugoslavia, reiterated that state’s respect for Bosnia’s integrity. Yugoslavia is the federation formed by Serbia and the smaller republic of Montenegro.

In turn, Alija Izetbegovic, president of neighboring Bosnia-Herzegovina, recognized the “continuity” of Yugoslavia--that it is the successor state to the Communist-era federation of six republics that bore the same name.

“We are setting behind us the period of confrontation and replacing it with a period of cooperation,” said Milosevic, who chatted amiably with his host, French President Jacques Chirac, during a brief signing ceremony under eight crystal chandeliers in the Elysee Palace, the official presidential residence. “I believe we have taken a crucial step toward the total stabilization of the region.”

A more subdued Izetbegovic said: “I did not come here to make a speech. It is all in the document, and now I would like to see that the substance [of the document] is implemented.”

The seven-point agreement was the product of a day of talks between the two men arranged by Chirac. Expectations were low at the start of the sessions because the two men have never had any rapport, and the brutal war that Milosevic is widely believed to have masterminded is still too fresh for many Bosnians.

Indeed, the presidents did not set a date for exchanging ambassadors, and all of the trade and infrastructure points in the document were short on details. In the Balkan conflicts that have followed the breakup of the old Yugoslavia, signed agreements have often dissolved into thin air unless deadlines were set and external pressure applied continually.

Still, several participants credited Chirac with persuading the two Balkan leaders to reach the breakthrough on diplomatic relations. The morning meeting between Izetbegovic and Milosevic had not gone well, a source said. But over a three-hour lunch of seafood and beef, Chirac spoke to the two presidents, shifting back and forth, insisting on the importance of compromise and agreement.

“It was like pingpong,” said one participant.

“There had been no movement in the morning, and everything seemed stopped,” said a member of the Yugoslav delegation. “Then everything softened at lunch, and they found a formula.”

Milosevic, whose Bosnian Serb allies waged a 43-month war against Bosnia’s Muslim-led government, agreed to respect the sovereignty and integrity of Bosnia. Such recognition undermines the Bosnian Serbs’ goals of splitting off the parts of Bosnia they control and uniting them with Serbia.

In exchange, Izetbegovic agreed to respect the “continuity” of Serbian-led Yugoslavia. That bolsters the claim of the government in Belgrade that its state is the rightful successor to the old Yugoslavia, which disintegrated into bloodshed at the start of the decade.

Eventually, this could entitle the Belgrade government to a seat in the United Nations, among other things. In 1992, after Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Macedonia each had asserted their independence, with Serbia and Montenegro remaining to form a new federation and assume the name of Yugoslavia, the U.N. General Assembly voted to exclude the truncated state. The United States does not formally recognize the rump Yugoslavia as an independent state.

However, the most contentious point in Thursday’s negotiations may have been a lawsuit filed by the Bosnian government in the World Court at The Hague accusing Serbia of genocide. Milosevic had repeatedly demanded that the Bosnians drop the claim as a condition for diplomatic relations.

In Thursday’s agreement, the two presidents committed their countries to refrain from “political and legal acts that do not contribute to the development of amicable relations.”

Members of the Yugoslav delegation said they interpreted this to mean that Bosnia would withdraw the suit. But, foreshadowing the difficulties that lie ahead, Bosnian government officials denied that the suit was dead.

“We understand the establishment of diplomatic relations was unconditional,” Bosnia’s ambassador to the United Nations, Muhamed Sacirbey, said late Thursday after consultations with Izetbegovic. “The suit still stands.”

Thursday’s signing took place in the same salon where Milosevic, Izetbegovic and Croatia’s President Franjo Tudjman signed the U.S.-brokered Dayton, Ohio, accord Dec. 14, halting the war, ushering in a 60,000-strong NATO-led peacekeeping force and clearing the way for national elections last month.

Milosevic and Izetbegovic had never negotiated one-on-one before. In reaching the Dayton accord, they had always worked through mediators. For meeting with “the enemy,” both men risked political fallout at home.

Izetbegovic is likely to be criticized by those Bosnian Muslims opposed to any contacts with the man widely blamed for starting the war. At the same time, his government eagerly sought recognition, and Izetbegovic in particular wanted to be validated as the elected and accepted president of Bosnia. As top vote getter in presidential elections last month, he heads a three-person presidency; the other two members are a Serb and a Croat.

For Milosevic, whose political party faces a credible challenge in federal elections next month, the meeting with Izetbegovic was the latest in his quest for rehabilitation among the world community.

He has recast himself from warmonger to peacemaker and played an important role in forcing the Bosnian Serbs to accept the Dayton accord. As a reward, crippling economic sanctions imposed by the United Nations were suspended early this year and lifted completely Tuesday. Headlines this week in the Belgrade press, above large pictures of Milosevic, proclaimed: “The world is with us again.”

Now he seeks further acceptance, diplomats say: to be readmitted into international organizations and to become eligible for international financial grants and loans. A key step is better behavior toward Bosnia.

“Milosevic knows he has to start normalizing regional relations if he wants to normalize relations with the U.S. and the major Western powers,” said a senior U.S. official. “He has to interact with the region if he wants to interact with us.”

The Americans, however, were kept at a distance from this meeting, although Richard Holbrooke, a former assistant secretary of state who brokered the peace deal, claimed a hand in persuading the parties to attend.

Western officials also credited Thursday’s agreement to a momentum that they say has been building since the elections. Bosnia’s three-person presidency finally met Monday for the first time. And Saturday, a newly elected joint legislature for the two halves of Bosnia as well as governments for each half--the Muslim-Croat federation and the Serbian Republika Srpska--are scheduled to be inaugurated.