950823

Bosnia sees two-months

time window for US plan

WASHINGTON, Aug 23 (Reuter) - Bosnian Foreign Minister Muhamed Sacirbey said on Wednesday he gave the current US Yugoslavia peace initiative up to two months to succeed, failing which the use of force might again become necessary.

Sacirbey told reporters that Bosnian leaders expected to discuss the initiative with a US peace team, led by Assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke, next Monday, and hinted the venue could be Paris.

The US plan, launched after Croatian successes against rebel Serbs altered the balance of power in former Yugoslavia, aims at a land share-out between Bosnia's factions and offers Serbia an end to sanctions if it recognises its neighbours.

"We envision a time-frame of, let's say, a month, two months, where there will be an optimum opportunity to take advantage of the current situation, the current environment," Sacirbey said after talks with Secretary of State Warren Christopher.

"If in fact we do not reach success by then, then we think this environment once again will become stale, and that we must look for a new environment ... consistent with other more forceful measures to compel the Serbs to accept peace."

He spoke shortly before the White House announced that a new team of envoys had been appointed to replace three US officials killed in a road accident in Bosnia last Saturday while pressing the US peace initiative. The new team under Holbrooke's charge was to resume its travels on Sunday.

Sacirbey said a forthcoming visit by Bosnia's Moslem President Alija Izetbegovic to Paris would provide a chance to meet Holbrooke next Monday, although he stopped short of confirming that would be the venue.

The three officials who died were Robert Frasure of the State Department, Joseph Kruzel from the Pentagon, and Samuel Nelson Drew, who was on the National Security Council.

Sacirbey paid tribute to what he called three "committed individuals" and said he was particularly affected by the death of Kruzel, who was a relative by marriage.

He said if peace efforts failed, Bosnia would have to consider asking the United States to break the U.N. arms embargo, a move demanded in a bill adopted by the Senate last month but which President Clinton is expected to veto.

But Sacirbey said: "We are not inclined to pull any triggers as long as this (peace) mission is moving forward."

Izetbegovic last week issued proposals which appeared to differ in some points from what little is known of the unpublished US plan. But Sacirbey said Bosnia was cooperating with the American initiative, broadly endorsed already by Serbia, Croatia and US allies.

He denied the plan required the Moslems to cede territory, such as the eastern enclave of Gorazde, to the Serbs, but appeared to hint at possible territorial swaps by referring to ideas that were "not in the context of the negotiations".

"There are new internal borders that are being established, consistent with the Contact Group peace plan, but absolutely maintaining Bosnian sovereignty and territorial integrity," he said.

Senior diplomats of the Contact Group, a Bosnia mediating body that comprises the United States, Britain, France, Germany and Russia, met Wednesday at the State Department to review peace efforts following the death of the US envoys.

The U.N. Yugoslavia mediator Thorvald Stoltenberg told reporters as he arrived for the meeting: "I think at present we are, thanks to the American initiative, on an important track and I certainly hope this process will continue soon.-Reuter