The breakdown of Bosnian peace talks means that Serbs and Croats may divide the country between themselves and leave no land for the Muslims, the leader of Bosnia's Serbs said Thursday.
"Carving up Bosnia in two pieces would never happen by our intention but it may happen by the events," Radovan Karadzic told a news conference.He predicted that authorities in government-held areas like the industrial region of Tuzla would seek to join up with a Serb state rather than face continued war.
The talks broke up Wednesday after Bosnia's Muslim-led government rejected a three-way ethnic partition of Bosnia.
Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic said the proposed peace plan made no guarantee of the survival of a Muslim state.
The breakup of the talks came just as it seemed the warring factions were on the verge of a final accord on how to end a war that has killed up to 200,000 people the past year.
"The forces of death prevail," said Bosnian Croat leader Mate Boban. "Unfortunately the war will continue," Croatian President Franjo Tudjman said as he left the meeting.
Izetbegovic left Geneva Thursday for talks with Turkish President Suleyman Demirel - one of Bosnia's main allies. Izetbegovic planned to head to New York to address the U.N. Security Council on Monday.
Izetbegovic said the Croats and Serbs were unwilling to offer "most basic compromises," referring to their refusal to give the Muslims access to the Adriatic Sea and more land in northwestern Bosnia.
"The minimum of minimums which we put before the conference would have allowed an economically and politically viable state," he told a news conference.
Both Izetbegovic and Tudjman said they were willing to return to the negotiating table. But Tudjman warned that a peaceful settlement would now take "weeks if not months."