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Bosnian Federation Agrees to Joint Military Command By Michael Dobbs From The Washington Post WASINGTON, May 16 — Under strong American prodding, leaders of Bosnia's fragile Muslim-Croat federation yesterday agreed to establish a joint military command, removing a major obstacle to the start of a U.S.-led program to equip and train its forces. The agreement on setting up a joint defense ministry was reached at a one-day conference between Muslim and Croat leaders in Washington, the latest in a series of U.S.-sponsored meetings designed to shore up the federation. The White House announced that Commerce Secretary Mickey Kantor will lead a business delegation to the Balkans in the next few days to continue the economic reconstruction efforts of his predecessor, Ronald H. Brown, who was killed in a plane crash in Croatia in April. The meeting ended with renewed pledges by leaders of both sides to breathe new life into the federation, which is regarded by American officials as an essential building block to implementation of November's Dayton peace agreement in Bosnia. Over the past few months, Western diplomats have expressed frustration over the lack of progress in integrating the Muslim and Croat parts of the federation and the open hostility that still exists between the two communities in many places. Secretary of State Warren Christopher, who presided over yesterday's meeting, praised the participants for resolving "some of the most fundamental core issues" between Muslims and Croats. He said that the stage was now set for free elections in the federation later this year and free movement of goods and people between Muslim- and Croat-controlled regions. The Muslim-Croat federation controls roughly 51 percent of Bosnian territory, with the remainder in the hands of the Serb republic. The Muslims and the Croats fought a bitter war with each other—during a civil war with Serb separatists—for more than a year and only agreed to an armistice at the beginning of 1994. Although federation leaders have made frequent pledges of cooperation over the past year, progress toward setting up a joint entity has been agonizingly slow. Freedom of movement in the city of Mostar, which serves as the federation capital, is still severely restricted. Leaders of the Croat entity, known as Herceg-Bosna, continue to impose their own customs duties on goods flowing in and out of Muslim-inhabited areas, in violation of the Dayton agreement. The earlier inability of Muslim and Croat leaders to agree to a common defense law and integrate their military commands was one of the major factors holding up the beginning of an American equip-and-train program, which is supposed to create a rough military balance between the federation and the Serbs. The other major hurdle is the continuing presence of Iranian mujaheddin advisers in Bosnia. State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns said the administration believed there were fewer than 100 mujaheddin left in Bosnia and that the Bosnian government has promised that they will all leave. The State Department is required to certify that all foreign troops have left Bosnia before the equip-and-train program can begin. |
Berserkistan, May 14 · U.S. Attempts to Salvage Bosnian Federation
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