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Clinton govt offers

Serbs chance to change

proposed Bosnia map

WASHINGTON: The Clinton Administration signalled Bosnian Serbs on Monday it would accept changes in a map proposed by five nations for ending the four-year war in Bosnia.

As American diplomats prepared to go to the Balkans, officials at the White House and state department said the map to divide the former Yugoslav republic into two ethnic zones could be revised once negotiations began.

The map, which the Serbs rejected last year, would give them control of 49 percent of Bosnia, through conquest, they now control more than two-thirds.

Also subject to change is the way the territory is divided among Serbs, Muslims and Croats. One idea being considered is giving the Muslim enclave of Gorazde, to the Serbs in exchange for undisputed Muslim control of Sarajevo, the capital.

SARAJEVO: U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke arrived in Croatia on Monday and was expected to go to the Bosnian capital to try to clear the way for a negotiated settlement of the three-year old war.

But warring factions showed no sign they were ready to compromise, as fighting flared in central Bosnia and Bosnian Serbs expelled Croats from their stronghold of Banja Luka.

Bosnian Serbs rounded up Croats and Muslims in the northern town of Banja Luka in what U.N. officials feared was a final drive to clear the region of non-Serbs.

The first boatloads of Croats were sent across the Sava river from Serb-held Bosnia on Monday and thousands more were expected to follow in a forced exodus.

The Serbs were purging the Banja Luka area of Croats and Muslims in revenge for the flight of 150,000 Serb refugees from the rebel Krajina region captured by Croatia last week.

Shortly after the exodus began, Bosnian Serbs broke earlier promises and prevented Croat men under 45 from leaving in what a U.N. official called a "sinister" development.

As a U.S. delegation planned to offer a new peace deal the White House called a Russian proposal for an international summit a "constructive idea" and pledged to study it.

The United States and Russia have set out competing peace plans after Croatia's conquest of the Krajina region altered the balance of power in the region.

UNITED NATIONS: Britain, France and U.N. officials are heading for a showdown with Croatia and Bosnian Croats over deployment of the new international Rapid Reaction Force, half of which is stuck in the Croatian port of Ploce.

British and French diplomats have protested to Croatian and Bosnian officials at the United Nations and are considering further steps, including Security Council action. They say Croatia and the Bosnian Croats are blocking deployment for financial and political rasons.

Belgium and the Netherlands, which have troops in the Rapid Reaction Force, have joined diplomatic protests, along with the United States, which has donated transport and equipment in getting the troops to Ploce, the envoys said.

ZAGREB: The number of UN peacekeepers in Croatia, could be brought down to less than 1,000 from the current 13,000 after they begin withdrawing this week, UN special envoy Yasushi Akashi said here Monday.

"It will be in the higher hundreds, that is less than 1,000 if our present plan is implemented but everything depends on the (UN) security council," said Akashi, the special envoy for the former Yugoslavia.-AFP/Reuter