GENEVA -- Yugoslav peace negotiators Lord David Owen and Thorwald Stoltenberg held a second day of talks Thursday in an effort to get Bosnian Muslims, Serbs, and Croats to agree on dividing up Bosnia while retaining a federal state.
Owens for the European Community and Stoltenberg for the United Nations were meeting through the day with Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, Croat leader Mate Boban and seven members of the central 10- member Bosni presidency.
Bosnian president Alija Izetbegovic, a Muslim, refused to attend the talks on grounds that Muslims would retain only a fraction of their previous territory under current proposals.
Serbs comprise around 32 percent of the Bosnian population but occupy 75 percent of the territory, mostly seized as part of Serbian 'ethnic cleansing.'
Muslims account for 45 percent of the population but now have just 20 percent or so of the former Bosnia-Herzegovina state.
Croats make up some 17 percent of the population.
With the strongest hand at the negotiating table, Karadzic proposes that Bosnia be divided into three ethnic mini-states with Serbs having 50 percent of the land.
Karadzic has offered to let Muslims have some 30 percent of the territory and have control over the capital Sarajevo on condition they relinguish their enclaves of Goradze, Zepa, and Srebenica.
Bosnia Croats for their part would have the remaining 20 percent of Bosnia, which has Croatian support.
Karadzic claims that the 30 percent central area offered by Serbs to Muslims accounts for more than 50 percent of Bosnian natural resources -- something U.N. officials said is not yet confirmed.
The Bosnian Serb leader also offered Muslims access to the River Sava and to the sea.
Owen and Stoltenberg, their aides said, continue to oppose the creation of three independent ethnic states although they in effect have little choice to go along with the idea provided the three regions continue to be linked in a federation, even if it's loose.
