Milosevic agrees to press his allies to attend talks
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Slobodan Milosevic, the Serbian President, met Francois Mitterrand and the two United Nations mediators, Lord Owen and Cyrus Vance, yesterday in talks called to attempt to edge forward the Bosnia peace process. Mr Milosevic agreed to try to persuade his Serb allies in Bosnia to attend talks in New York early next week on the Vance-Owen peace plan, the French Foreign Ministry said.
Speaking to reporters after the talks, Mr Milosevic gave no clear sign that he could endorse the peace plan itself, saying it was up to Bosnia's three communities - Serb, Croat and Muslim - to pronounce on it.
President Mitterrand is reported to have told Mr Milosevic that harsher action by the international community would follow if the Serbs continued to block the peace process.
The Bosnian government said in Sarajevo yesterday that it was ready to agree to the Vance-Owen peace plan, but listed a number of conditions to be fulfilled before it would do so.
Bosnia has refused to accept the proposed new map of Bosnia- Herzegovina, which splits it into Serb, Croat and Bosnian Muslim semi-autonomous provinces under a weak central government. A government statement said it would recommend that the presidency accept the plan at its meeting scheduled for today, but it said that certain conditions had to be observed: the Bosnian constitution should be the only valid one within the borders of the newly divided republic; the external borders of the republic should be controlled only by the central government; the Bosnian currency should be the only valid one within the republic's borders; Sarajevo should remain the undivided capital of the republic; guarantees should be given, in the form of a UN Security Council resolution, on the application of the peace plan; the UN should take control of all heavy arms in the region, and all besieged towns and villages should be freed.
The provision for a single currency is likely to cause problems. Bosnian Croats already use Croatian money. In addition, the question of border controls would cause problems on the Serbian border, where Serbian forces are in control of several regions.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments