Word: owen
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Even with the arms embargo, the Bosnian army's Fifth Corps in Bihac is holding its own against the Serbs. Its commanders loudly reject the Vance-Owen proposal. "If they try to impose that plan," says Captain Ramiz Drekovic, "we will continue our war until we liberate Bosnia and Herzegovina. It could take a year, five years, 10 or a hundred...
Most of the non-Serbs who have remained in Banja Luka will go if the Vance- Owen plan is implemented. Radoslav Brdjanin, a government "minister" in the self-proclaimed Serbian Republic relishes the prospect and laughs at the demand that Serbs return to the Muslims any land taken. "Wherever there stands a Serbian army boot, that is our territory," he says. "Bosnia does not exist anymore. Our task is simply to clarify the divisions...
That, the Clinton Administration made clear last week, is pretty much what the U.S. intends to do. On the stump and during the presidential transition, Clinton said he would consider tougher action against Serbian aggression and criticized Vance-Owen for in effect rewarding the Serbs for their "ethnic cleansing." He said in recent weeks he wanted to give Bosnia's Muslims a better deal and make the Serbs give up more of the territory they have seized...
...when the time came to settle on a workable policy, Clinton found himself completely boxed in: by the West's past failures to act, by circumstances on the ground, by the public criticism from Owen and by European allies and the U.N. Security Council, which opposed any use of force. The options contracted further when Britain, France, Russia and others accepted the mediators' plan, even if the Muslims and Serbs who live there did not. Clinton considers ethnic division in Bosnia neither fair nor workable, but he was left with little choice unless he wanted to strike...
That left Washington to mount a friendly takeover of the Vance-Owen negotiations in the vague hope it could somehow make them turn out better. How much Clinton expects to change the existing plan is uncertain, though U.S. officials did vow not to force anything on Bosnia's Muslims, Serbs and Croats. Secretary of State Warren Christopher put the best gloss he could on the importance of "bringing the full weight of American diplomacy to bear." The U.S. was for the first time taking a direct role in the negotiations. Washington will send its own envoy, veteran diplomat and current...