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- THE WEEK, Page 19WORLDIn London, Mostly Talk
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- A peace parley makes some headway but the battle of Bosnia
- rages on
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- Poor Sarajevo. It may not survive many more peace talks.
- Every time an international conference declares a cease-fire or
- debates a plan to save the battered city, fighting seems to get
- worse. So it was last week at the start of a 30-country London
- conference on the crisis. As the participants arrived at the
- Queen Elizabeth II Conference Center, Serbian irregulars
- subjected the half-ruined Bosnian capital to one of its worst
- poundings since the siege began more than five months ago.
- Shells and rockets slammed into the city from hillside
- emplacements, killing more than a dozen townsfolk and damaging
- elegant buildings.
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- The bombardment appeared to be in defiance of the London
- conference, where participants condemned Serbian violence and
- threatened tougher sanctions (though they stopped short of
- advocating military action). "No trade. No aid. No international
- recognition or role," warned British Prime Minister John Major.
- Acting U.S. Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger said Serbia
- must make peace or pay "what we will ensure is an unacceptable
- price for aggression." The warnings brought at least lip service
- from the Serbs. They promised to open all prison camps and
- return about a fifth of the 70% of Bosnia-Herzegovina they have
- seized.
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- But the Balkan war has produced as many broken promises as
- broken bodies. Though the warring parties agreed to begin new
- talks next week in Geneva, some of those closest to the crisis
- are giving up hope. Britain's Lord Carrington, the European
- Community negotiator, resigned after a year of fruitless labor
- -- including more than 30 cease-fires, all broken. And George
- D. Kenney, a career diplomat who heads the State Department's
- Yugoslavia desk, resigned to protest America's failure to act
- decisively against Serbian "genocide." The London conference,
- he said, was "a charade."
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