Albright Visit a Spur to Balkan Rebuilding

BRCKO, Bosnia-Herzegovina — Secretary of State Madeleine Albright on Sunday completed a two-day visit to the Balkans that brought few immediate results but appeared to inject a new sense of urgency into the uphill process of rebuilding the war-ravaged region.

After meeting in Sarajevo with Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic and walking through some of the most damaged parts of the capital, she traveled to this northern Bosnian town to celebrate a modest but important achievement of her visit--the reopening of a one-lane road bridge across the Sava River connecting northern Bosnia-Herzegovina to Croatia and the rest of Europe.

“For the people of Bosnia, this road is both literally and symbolically a road to Europe,” she said as she stood on the Bosnian side, flanked by an array of Bosnian and Croatian leaders. “It is a bridge out of the 20th century [leading] away from past horrors.”

Establishing international trade routes is one goal stipulated in the U.S.-backed Bosnian peace accord as a way toward re-integrating the region after warfare left it split into three ethnic camps.

Croatia agreed to reopen the bridge after Albright made the request during a combative meeting in Zagreb on Saturday with Croatian President Franjo Tudjman. The bridge was damaged at the start of the Bosnian war in 1992, and, although it was repaired several months ago, Croatian authorities had refused to open it.

Despite--or possibly because of--Albright’s scorching criticism a day earlier of Croatia’s failure to implement key elements of the peace accord, Croatian Prime Minister Zlatko Matesa seemed to hint at a more serious commitment at the bridge-opening ceremony.

“We believe the moment has come for the reconstruction to begin and the refugees to gradually go back,” he said. “The Croatian government is dedicated to this.”

Among Albright’s demands Saturday was the return of minority refugees to their homes in both Croatia and Bosnia. In one respect, events at the bridge indicated that gloves-off rhetoric can produce results in the Balkans.

But conditions in Brcko provided a sobering reminder of just how little progress has been achieved at re-integrating Bosnia’s ethnic groups and how difficult the job is.

With the majority of the town’s homes destroyed and those remaining occupied by Bosnian Serb refugees seeking shelter after being chased from their own communities by fighting, the chances of restoring the balanced mix of Muslims and Serbs seem slim.

Last month, a group of Muslims who came to reclaim their prewar homes here were jeered and their bus stoned before they fled to homes elsewhere that they were forced to occupy out of desperation.

“Everyone is in the wrong house, and in the end there turns out to be a missing house,” Albright said at one point, encapsulating one of the region’s most difficult problems.

But the most rewarding stop on Albright’s agenda was at the start of the day, at a playground along Sarajevo’s infamous “sniper alley” that has been rebuilt with U.S. assistance.

Albright was a reassuring figure to an assembled group of 5- and 6-year-olds who had lived through much of the war, telling them, “Everything will be OK, because we will make a world that is good for you.”

The children were impressed. When asked if she knew who the important visitor was, 11-year-old Vasfija Kapo responded without hesitation.

“Of course, she’s the president of the United States.”