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Bosnian peace process lagging, despite end to fighting
April 15, 1997
Web posted at: 10:00 p.m. EDT (0200 GMT)From Correspondent Christiane Amanpour
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (CNN) -- The guns in Bosnia have been silent for 18 months, but the goals of the Dayton peace accord and hopes for a reunified country are under political assault.
It's enough to prompt the people of multi-ethnic Sarajevo, capital of the Muslim-Croat Federation, to ask whether their ideal of a unified Bosnia is still realistic.
The 1995 agreement signed by the leaders of Serbia, Bosnia and Croatia ended Bosnia's bitter civil war, which began with the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia.
Under the agreement, Bosnia is a single nation with two republics -- the Muslim-Croat Federation controls 51 percent of the territory, and the Bosnia-Serb Republic controls the remaining 49 percent.
"We start to think about partition, not as a best solution, but as a danger," political editor Sead Numanovic says. "We try to talk to people about different solutions for Bosnia as a unified state."
Once this kind of talk was taboo in Sarajevo, but people read much into small signs around town, such as an Islamically correct butcher. They take note when money pours into Bosnia from Muslim countries to build new mosques, while destroyed homes take much longer to rebuild.
Heartened by pope's message
Mindful of the dangers of radicalization, Bosnia's Muslim clerics draw hope from the Pope's weekend visit -- and his message that all faiths must coexist again.
The Vatican believes that the country's three ethnic groups -- Orthodox Christian Serbs, Bosnian Muslims and Roman Catholic Croats -- can live together in peace.
Muslim religious and political leaders remain committed to reintegration, but hard-line Serb leaders still want separation.
The division is so harsh that it's impossible, for instance, to make a telephone call from Sarajevo to the Serb entity just over the hills.
There was one small step forward Tuesday when Serb, Croat and Muslim leaders agreed to form a single central bank and an interim currency with different designs for each of its two territories. A common currency, central bank and functioning central government are aims of the Dayton accord.
The agreement also envisions normalized relations between Bosnia and Serbia, with refugees allowed to return to their homes. But there has been almost no progress in that area.
In Sarajevo, Bosnian leaders demand that sanctions be imposed on those who don't comply with the peace process.
"Dayton has a chance to be implemented, to be done if there's enough pressure from the international community," Haris Silajdzic of the Bosnian government says.
Is spirit of Dayton fading?
But the people fear that as the international spotlight fades from Bosnia, the pressure to cooperate in the spirit of Dayton will diminish.
"They keep saying, 'no blood, no story,'" journalist Edina Becerovic says. And Numanovic adds: "Everybody believes Dayton is nothing but a large cease-fire and nothing else."
Bob Gelbard, the new U.S. coordinator for Bosnia, offers this suggestion: "Just watch what I do; we'll see what happens."
He promises a renewed U.S. commitment, and has been instructed by the White House to speed up the Dayton process.
Bosnian leaders warn that the United States must go the final step to protect its investment and the peace it tendered -- otherwise Bosnia may be at risk for another war once the United States pulls its forces out next year.
Related stories:
- Pope urges Bosnian rivals to forgive - April 13, 1997
- In Bosnia, pope denounces 'inhuman logic of violence' - April 12, 1997
- Pope's visit brings hope to Sarajevo - April 10, 1997
- Highlights of the Bosnian Peace Plan - November 21, 1995
Related sites:
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- Bosnia - Keeping the Peace - Time Magazine
- Bosnet
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