A new accord strengthening the alliance of Bosnia's Muslims and Croats was tested Monday by hundreds of refugees returning to lands their people once fought over.
Under the agreement reached last week at the Bosnian peace talks in the United States, 300 Muslim families are to go back this week to the Bosnian Croat-held towns of Jajce and Stolac. Three hundred ethnic Croat families were to return to the their homes in government-held Travnik and Bugojno.They were displaced by vicious fighting between Bosnian Muslims and Croats in 1993. The battles stopped in March 1994 when, under U.S. pressure, the two sides entered into a marriage of convenience against Bosnian Serbs. The federation was meant to administer half of Bosnia after peace is reached; Bosnian Serbs were to administer the other half.
But the coalition existed more on paper than in reality, and friction between Muslims and Croats remained high.
The agreement signed last week at the U.S.-sponsored peace talks outside Dayton, Ohio, seeks to buttress the alliance. It gives the federation some authority by disbanding the self-styled Bosnian Croat state in southwestern Bosnia. It also seeks to build trust between Croats and Muslims by easing the resettlement of refugees.
Some 30 Bosnian Croat families have already returned home individually over the past few days, Bosnian government officials said. One hundred families from both sides were to return home Monday.
Meanwhile, the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal Monday announced war crime indictments against six Bosnian Croat leaders, accusing them of terrorizing and destroying a Muslim region in central Bosnia.
Despite the accusations, U.N. officials in Sarajevo said they would continue to cooperate with the indicted leaders as long as they remain in charge.
Charged with crimes against humanity and war crimes were Dario Kordic, chairman of the Croatian Democratic Union in Croat-held Bosnia, and Tihofil Blaskic, chief of staff of the Bosnia-based Croatian Defense Council.