U.S. Orchestrates Agreement On Bosnian Ambassadorships Postings Must Be Divided Equally; War Crimes Issue Unresolved

U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke, crisscrossing the Balkans to save his peace plan, won agreement among Bosnian leaders early Friday on dividing up ambassadorships.

However, there were no breakthroughs on any of the other key issues under discussion by the leaders of postwar Bosnia, including the surrender of war crimes suspects to the U.N. tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands.

Bosnia’s three-man presidency heads an ineffective federal government of Muslims, Serbs and Croats that is supposed to be binding the two halves of the country back together.

The federal positions are stymied by intransigence and disagreements, primarily between Serbs on one side and Muslims and Croats on the other. But Muslim-Croat disputes also slow progress on many issues.

Bosnia’s leaders missed last week’s deadline for taking critical steps toward integrating the government: dividing up the ambassadorships; agreeing on a citizenship law; and reopening the country’s shattered airports.

Nations overseeing the peace in Bosnia say the 31 Bosnian foreign ambassadorships must be divided equally among Muslims, Croats and Serbs. In the end, the agreement was held up by each side’s desire to secure the U.S. posting, considered the most influential.

Tom Leary, the spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo, said the agreement was brokered early Friday after more than 10 hours of meetings with Bosnia’s three-man presidency.

The solution hammered out by Holbrooke and U.S. special envoy to the Balkans Richard Gelbard foresees the U.S. posting going to the Bosnian Serbs.

Nothing had been signed yet, but n agreement had been reached, Leary said. The meetings were to continue on the remaining issues.

Even getting the joint presidency to meet - let alone cooperate - is difficult. Thursday’s was the first presidency meeting in about three weeks attended by the Serb member, Momcilo Krajisnik.

Holbrooke negotiated among combatants in the 3-1/2-year Bosnian war to help secure the Dayton peace agreement that formally ended fighting between Serbs and a Muslim-Croat alliance in December 1995. Before they became allied, the Muslims and Croats also fought each other.

Under the agreement, the sides are supposed to cooperate in Bosnia’s federal government and ensure refugees can return to their old homes. International officials also say the apprehension of war crimes suspects is crucial to peace.

“Everybody is an obstacle,” Holbrooke said.

“But if I have to rank-order them, I would say the Serbs are the biggest of the three - but all three sides are in non-compliance to some degree.”

Haris Silajdzic, the Muslim co-premier of the Muslim-Croat federation, suggested international mediators eventually may need to step in to arbitrate, as authorized under the Dayton deal.