Word: croats
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Bosnia's cease-fire now appears to be in effect everywhere except in the Sanski Most area of northwestern Bosnia. "U.N. officials say the town itself was quiet but fierce fighting could be heard to the east and north, indicating that the Muslim and Croat allies may be trying to capture Prijedor, about 20 miles to the north," reports Alexandra Stiglmayer from Sarajevo. "Prijedor is of major symbolic value to the Muslims because in 1992, Serbs brutally expelled the Muslim population from there, committing some of the worst massacres of the Bosnian war." The area is also of strategic value...
...last week of fighting has displaced tens of thousands in Bosnia. More than 40,000 Serbs fled the Muslim-Croat advance in the northwest. Meanwhile, Bosnian Serbs responded with the forced expulsions of an estimated 9,000 Muslims and Croats. "In the final days before the cease-fire Serbs unleashed an ethnic cleansing campaign in the northwest border areas that is shocking even by Balkan standards," reports Edward Barnes. "Those who survived the week said Serb police and army units systematically broke into virtually all the Croat and Muslim homes in a wide swath from Sanski Most to Banja Luka...
...Though Holbrooke has served to push things along, the crucial breakthrough came only after the Serbs finally provoked the Western allies on Aug. 28 by firing a shell into a Sarajevo market, killing 38 civilians and triggering NATO's air strikes. While the bombardment kept the Serbs preoccupied, the Croat-Muslim juggernaut was free to surge ahead, and by last Wednesday it stood within 30 miles of the Serb stronghold of Banja Luka, raising fears that Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic might intervene. But Milosevic has recently banked his fortunes on posing as a broker for peace--a role...
...absence of their relentless military commander Ratko Mladic, who was in the hospital reportedly being treated for gallstones, it was not until late in the week that the Bosnian Serb forces finally appeared to stiffen their defenses along a wide arc surrounding Banja Luka. By that time, however, the Croat-Muslim attack had already touched off an exodus of more than 85,000 Bosnian Serb refugees. Many, like Branko Japundja, 50, a wounded Serb farmer who left the hospital where he was recuperating and walked all night to escort his family from their frontline village, descended on Banja Luka after...
...fighting. That could be a while. After he finishes his talks in New York City and returns to the Balkans, presumably late this week, Holbrooke's next challenge will be to concentrate on the even more demanding task of drawing boundaries between the Serb republic and the Croat-Muslim federation...