home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- <text id=93TT1727>
- <title>
- May 17, 1993: A Fragile New Hope for Peace
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1993
- May 17, 1993 Anguish over Bosnia
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- THE WEEK, Page 14
- NATION
- A Fragile New Hope for Peace
- </hdr>
- <body>
- <p>Bosnian Serbs and Muslims try a last-minute cease-fire
- </p>
- <p> Allied leaders were discussing intervention in Bosnia last
- week when the commanders of the rebel Serb forces and the Bosnian
- army unexpectedly signed a cease-fire, to take effect on May 9.
- Suddenly, there was hope that the intervention no one really
- wants would not be necessary. But would the truce hold? Many
- such agreements have been made and broken during the past year.
- Only a week ago, Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic had
- signed the Vance-Owen peace plan. Just as Secretary of State
- Warren Christopher switched gears in Europe, from lobbying
- allies on a plan to bomb the Serbs to discussing the formation
- of a U.N. peacekeeping force, the Bosnian Serb parliament
- scuttled Vance-Owen, 51-2. All the disagreements that a peace
- plan might have papered over were back. France and Britain, with
- troops on the ground, abhor air strikes just slightly less than
- permitting Bosnian government troops to receive arms, which they
- fear will only expand the war. Congressional leaders pledged to
- support Clinton, if he could convince the American people; the
- polls indicated they needed convincing.
- </p>
- <p> Critics said Clinton lacked the leadership George Bush
- showed in shepherding the country and its allies toward Desert
- Storm. But the situation in Bosnia is fundamentally different--and President Bush, after all, was in no hurry to send
- American troops to Bosnia. As Clinton hesitated, lobbying
- American allies and mulling over his options, General Colin
- Powell, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, emerged as a key
- player on Clinton's national security team. Last week, Powell
- reportedly remarked, "Boy, was the Gulf War easy compared to
- this." Consensus building is part of leadership. As the Pentagon
- plotted strikes from Italy and the Adriatic, Clinton said he
- would seek both U.N. and congressional endorsement for his
- plans. He is also likely to heed Senator Bob Dole's advice that
- he hold a national "fireside chat" to explain his decision to
- the American people once he makes it.
- </p>
-
- </body>
- </article>
- </text>
-
-