In this story: Balkan media skeptical of Western proposals Milosevic not invited; his rivals are RELATED STORIES, SITES

July 29, 1999
Web posted at: 10:04 a.m. EDT (1404 GMT)

From staff and wire reports

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina -- Balkan leaders were arriving in Sarajevo Thursday for an international summit designed to bring economic recovery and political stability to a region plagued by a decade of bloodshed.

Yugoslavia will not be represented, as Western nations have vowed not to help rebuild its main republic, Serbia, as long as Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic remains in power.

Delegates began arriving Thursday morning for an afternoon meeting, in which leaders from nine Balkan nations will offer their own vision for stability before the one-day international summit on Friday.

Leaders from about 40 nations, including U.S. President Bill Clinton, are expected for the main event on Friday. They are expected to endorse a "stability pact," or broad plan for promoting democracy, disarmament and economic recovery throughout southeastern Europe.

Western officials view the meetings as a crucial first step toward bolstering a region that dragged Europe into World War I, endured a half-century of communist rule and exploded into violence when Yugoslavia disintegrated in 1991.

"Instead of trying to isolate themselves from the instability of the Balkans," said Alpo Russi, an adviser to Finnish President Marti Ahtissari, "the European Union and others outside the region now have the chance to turn the tide of history by helping to bring peace, stability and prosperity."

Balkans press skeptical of Western proposals

State-controlled and private media in most Balkan countries, however, have given little attention to the summit. The Romanian newspaper Curierul National headlined its report: "Western aspirin to Balkan cancer patients," reflecting widespread skepticism about Western resolve to devote years and considerable resources to rebuilding the region.

Some Balkan leaders also appear to have misgivings. Slovenia and Croatia are reluctant to commit themselves to a pact that might tie their own chances for membership in the EU to the performance of poorer candidates, such as Albania and Macedonia.

Former Yugoslav republics, especially Croatia, fear that establishing any regional economic and political bloc would threaten the independence that they won from Yugoslavia in the early 1990s.

In a letter released Wednesday by Slovene officials in Ljubljana, Slovene President Milan Kucan told Clinton that Slovenia was ready to help with the democratic and economic recovery of the Balkans, but shunned the idea of being formally linked to other less developed former Yugoslav republics.

Some countries, notably Romania and Bulgaria, are primarily interested in getting Western aid to offset losses in trade suffered by the 78-day NATO bombing campaign, which severed trade links to Yugoslavia.

For its part, Albania wants help for a massive reconstruction program to build its infrastructure, as a payment for its support of NATO during the air campaign against Yugoslavia.

Milosevic not invited; his rivals are

Milosevic, indicted for war crimes for allegedly orchestrating Serb repression against the ethnic Albanian majority in the Serb republic of Kosovo, will be conspicuously absent from the Sarajevo meetings.

To emphasize Milosevic's pariah status, Dragoslav Avramovic, a popular former central banker who has been proposed by some opposition groups to head an interim Yugoslav government, has been invited to the gathering.

Milo Djukanovic, president of the pro-Western Yugoslav republic of Montenegro which has distanced itself from Belgrade, will also attend.

Measures to be discussed at the summit, which is being held under tight security in the war-scarred Bosnian capital, will include easier access for Balkan exports.

It will take place in Sarajevo's Zetra arena, a venue for the 1984 Winter Olympics. Destroyed by Serb shelling during the 1992-1995 Bosnian war, it reopened last month.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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