International Leverage to
Enforce Dayton is Limited
SARAJEVO, April 30 (Reuters) — Ethnic separatists are once again gaining the upper hand in Bosnia and subverting the Dayton peace process, making partition of the country increasingly likely, diplomats said in Sarajevo on Tuesday. "Let's just say that those who would faithfully implement the Dayton accords are not ascendant," said Michael Maclay, spokesman for international mediator Carl Bildt, whose job it is to implement the civilian side of the peace agreement. Maclay acknowledged that international leverage over recalcitrant parties was limited.Bildt's biggest stick is the imposition or, in the case of rump Yugoslavia, reimposition of economic sanctions. But Maclay said it was so unwieldy it probably could not be used at all. "Mr Bildt's view is that there is a danger that imposing sanctions would be running up the white flag and admitting that partition is inevitable," Maclay said. "The alternative is patience and pressure through the sorts of negotiations which are now under way."
NATO Achievement Overshadowed
NATO's success in shepherding Bosnia's three armies back to barracks and their weapons into storage sites in the first four months of the peace process is now being obscured by failures, large and small, on the civilian side of the effort.Two people were reported killed and as many as 10 injured in a clash on Monday between Muslim refugees trying to return to their homes, and Serbs who blocked their way. The incident was just the latest in a series of confrontations which have highlighted how limited freedom of movement remains in post-war Bosnia, along with the right of refugees and displaced persons to return to their homes. Those rights were guaranteed under Dayton and championed as cornerstones of a multi-ethnic, democratic Bosnia.
Hardliners Biding their Time
But hardline nationalist leaders are finding it relatively easy to scuttle efforts at reintegration by insisting that each step of the process is negotiated in excruciating detail. While a few small-scale visits to graves and homes have been rationed out across the boundary line which separates Bosnia's Muslim-Croat federation from its Serb republic, no significant returns are occurring. Diplomats say the nationalists are playing for time, paying reluctant lip service to democracy while betting the international community will lose patience in Bosnia and finally acquiesce to de facto partition.Bosnian former prime minister Haris Silajdzic, now a candidate in elections scheduled for later this year, said on Tuesday that NATO peace troops were on a slippery slope by failing to insist on civilian freedom of movement. "If they remain passive in the face of the violation of basic human rights, my question would be what are they here for," Silajdzic said. "There is an "UNPROFORisation (of NATO)."
The ex-premier was referring to the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Bosnia which preceeded NATO's deployment and was characterised by a willingness to accommodate nationalists rather than confront them. Berserkistan is a world news service of Michael Linder Productions, Inc.
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