Overcoming their differences only at the last moment, Balkan leaders agreed Tuesday on a comprehensive settlement to end the 43-month war in Bosnia. President Clinton announced the pact in Washington and declared, "The people of Bosnia finally have a chance to turn from the horror of war to the promise of peace."
After three weeks of arduous talks, the presidents of Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia were ready to initial an agreement ending savage ethnic warfare that has taken hundreds of thousands of lives.The agreement sets the stage for a formal signing ceremony next month in Paris.
Clinton reaffirmed his commitment of 20,000 American troops to a NATO peacekeeping force that will be deployed in Bosnia once the agreement is formalized. House Speaker Newt Ging-rich said he looked at the deploy-ment "skeptically but with an open mind" and would hold hearings next week.
Agreement was reached in Dayton only after U.S. negotiators presented Balkan leaders with a last-ditch proposal to overcome a stubborn territorial dispute.
A senior delegation official said the final issue that was settled involved Brcko, a Serb-held town at the narrowest point of a corridor linking Serb-holdings in northwestern and eastern Bosnia. Control of the town is critical for the Serbs, who want the territory that borders Serbia in the east.
The dispute over Brcko will be submitted to binding arbitration by a panel of Muslims, Serbs and Europeans. The agreement also includes these provisions:
- Bosnia's current boundaries would be preserved with territory divided roughly equally between a Bosnian Serb state and one controlled by a federation of Croats and Muslims.
- A central government would have a democratically elected president and parliament.
- Individuals charged with war crimes would be banned from political office, a provision aimed at Radovan Karadzic, the political leader of the Bosnian Serbs, and Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb military leader. Both have been indicted by a U.N. war crimes tribunal.
U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali welcomed the agreement and promised: "The United Nations will do all it can to help end the suffering and to return life to normal."
U.S. troops could be in Bosnia within weeks. At a Rose Garden announcement, Clinton said "The parties have chosen peace, America must chose peace as well. Without us, the hard-won peace would be lost," he said. "We have assured Congress that there will be no complete deployment until they have a chance to be heard on this issue."