Word: owen
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...strategic game changed abruptly when the leader of the Bosnian Serbs, Radovan Karadzic, showed up on May 1 in Athens to sign the Vance-Owen plan to partition the country into 10 provinces. If the plan were to be carried out, the U.S. would have to live up to its promise to contribute as many as half of the 60,000 -- or more -- peacekeeping troops sent to Bosnia. It was a pledge that most of Washington thought would never be called...
Karadzic's surprising acquiescence abruptly refocused Christopher's discussions. Air strikes were virtually off the agenda as the allies began talking about patching together a peacekeeping force of three or four divisions. All the major European countries, including Russia, said they were ready to police Vance-Owen with ground troops in Bosnia...
...sooner had Washington been sobered by this possibility than the Bosnian Serbs reversed course again. At a meeting of their self-designated parliament at Pale, in the mountains east of Sarajevo, they refused overwhelmingly to accept the Vance-Owen plan and Karadzic's signature on it. They ignored his pleas for support, as well as those from Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, who had supported and financed them...
...Serbs, particularly their militia leaders, were adamant, arguing that the Vance-Owen plan meant giving up land they had bled for -- something they would never do. "Let them bomb us," smirked Radoslav Brdjanin, a faction leader from Banja Luka. "We will win the war." Serbian commanders had already begun moving their headquarters and supply centers out of towns and into caves and wooded areas. After 17 hours of debate at Pale, the assembly voted to submit the peace proposal to a referendum among Bosnian Serbs on May 15. The move was a ploy that allowed Karadzic to claim Vance-Owen...
Assuming the allies finally follow (which seems likely, since their appetite for recalcitrance appears to have run its course), these minimeasures could begin almost immediately. "It's the ultimate cop-out to let them fight it out," says Lord Owen, who has been trying to broker a negotiated settlement for almost two years. Owen aside, there is no assurance that the genocide will moderate. Does anyone seriously think the Serbs will picnic as their opponents arm, or that they'll suddenly respect the lightly defended enclaves where innocents have gathered to escape the slaughter, the so-called safe havens they...