SARAJEVO, Oct. 18 -- In a further breakthrough in the war-torn Balkans, Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Serbia-led Yugoslav union agreed Wednesday to open liaison offices in each other's capitals, U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke said. The assistant secretary of state made the announcement in Sarajevo where he held talks with Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic, following a meeting earlier in the day with Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic. 'Yugoslavia and the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina have agreed to our suggestion to establish liaison offices in their respective capitals,' he said. 'Liaison officers are official officers of their respective governments and as such provide an extremely important method of direct communication between the two governments when there is no diplomatic recognition,' he said. No date has been given for the opening of the offices and Holbrooke said much would depend on logistics as well as adherence to the week-old cease-fire. Holbrooke, European Union envoy Carl Bildt and Russian envoy Igor Ivanov flew directly from Belgrade to Sarajevo in what U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher said was the first direct flight between the two cities since the outbreak of war more than three years ago. Speaking in Washington, Christopher said the agreement to open the scaled-down diplomatic missions and the flight marked 'two small but important steps.' The latest diplomatic shuttle was also significant because it was the first time western and Russian officials participated jointly in meetings with individual leaders from the former Yugoslavia. After his talks in the Bosnian capital, Holbrooke headed to Zagreb for talks with Croatian leader Franjo Tudjman and planned the return to Belgrade Thursday.
The Balkan meetings come in advance of peace talks between the warring factions scheduled to be held Oct. 31 at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. The Balkan leaders are due to negotiate through intermediaries and are not expected to meet face-to-face. Speaking on the steps of the Bosnian presidency building in Sarajevo, Holbrooke also said Izetbegovic would be in New York next week for celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of the United Nations. 'So there is a lot of traveling ahead of all of us, but more specifically, there is a lot of work,' he said. But Bosnian Foreign Minister Muhamed Sacirbey told reporters Wednesday he was 'negative' about the prospects of success at the scheduled Ohio Bosnia peace talks. Sacirbey, who is attending the summit of the Non-Aligned Movement where Bosnia is seeking membership, said that if the Ohio talks failed it would be the fault of the United States and Europe. The minister criticized the possible inclusion of indicted war criminals in the Serbian delegation and said he thought it impossible any agreement could be reached with these people. 'I am negative on them (the talks) for one very simple reason,' Sacirbey said. 'I don't think the homework has been done to make them a success.' Asked about the specific position of Bosnia ahead of the talks, Sacirbey said the main difference was not on territory but ideology. 'This does not mean that we have to give territory that has been liberated by our army into the hands of an army that has come from the outside,' Sacirbey added. The agreement to open liaison offices comes at a time when the guns of war have fallen silent in much of Bosnia-Herzegovina, though not in the northwestern part of the country, where Muslim-led government troops have attacked the Serb-held town of Prijedor for several days. In what was seen as a further signal all sides are serious about efforts to turn the 60-day cease-fire into a permanent peace, representatives of the Bosnian government, Bosnian Croats and the Bosnian Serbs showed little disagreement in talks Tuesday held to map out current frontlines. Officials of the U.N. Protection Force, or UNPROFOR Wednesday released new land holding percentages based on the maps submitted by the warring factions. 'Right now it is UNPROFOR's assessment that 48.4 percent is occupied by the Bosnian Serbs and 51.6 by the (Muslim-Croat) federation,' said U.N. spokesman Yuri Chizhik. If a peace treaty is achieved, NATO would send some 70,000 soldiers -- including 20,000 troops promised by U.S. President Bill Clinton -- to Bosnia for up to a year to enforce the agreement. A Russian foreign ministry official stressed Wednesday Moscow will not bow to U.S. pressure to put the force under full NATO command. He indicated that two days of talks in Moscow had brought no solution to the dispute and said the issue would dominate a meeting of Russian President Boris Yeltsin and Clinton, in New York, Monday. U.S. Deputy national security adviser Samuel Berger said Russian participation in the peacekeeping operation is still under discussion, but insisted the force would have to be under NATO command. In an interview with CNN, Berger also said that if there is a peace settlement, 'you would see the arms embargo against the Bosnian government lifted and a strengthening of the forces.'
SARAJEVO: xxx work,' he said. The latest breakthrough comes at a time when the guns of war have fallen silent in much of Bosnia-Herzegovina, though not in the northwestern part of the country, where Muslim-led government troops have attacked the Serb-held town of Prijedor for several days. In what was seen as a further signal all sides are serious about efforts to turn the 60-day cease-fire into a permanent peace, representatives of the Bosnian government, Bosnian Croats and the Bosnian Serbs showed little disagreement in talks Tuesday held to map out current frontlines. Officials of the U.N. Protection Force, or UNPROFOR Wednesday released new land holding percentages based on the maps submitted by the warring factions. 'Right now it is UNPROFOR's assessment that 48.4 percent is occupied by the Bosnian Serbs and 51.6 by the (Muslim-Croat) federation,' said U.N. spokesman Yuri Chizhik. If a peace treaty is achieved, NATO would send some 70,000 soldiers -- including 20,000 troops promised by U.S. President Bill Clinton -- to Bosnia for up to a year to enforce the agreement. A Russian foreign ministry official stressed Wednesday Moscow will not bow to U.S. pressure to put the force under full NATO command. He indicated that two days of talks in Moscow had brought no solution to the dispute and said the issue would dominate a meeting of Russian President Boris Yeltsin and Clinton, in New York, Monday. U.S. Deputy national security adviser Samuel Berger said Russian participation in the peacekeeping operation is still under discussion, but insisted the force would have to be under NATO command. In an interview with CNN, Berger also said that if there is a peace settlement, 'you would see the arms embargo against the Bosnian government lifted and a strengthening of the forces.'
