SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina — President Clinton's trip to Bosnia on Monday may have been seen as a morale booster for U.S. troops, who, everyone now admits publicly, will be stationed here indefinitely.
But Clinton also had a critical message for Bosnians as well, a message he hammered in his first visit to Sarajevo, the capital. It is time, in the words of Clinton and his associates, for Bosnian leaders to "behave"--to overcome their stubborn resistance to democratic reforms and make peace work.
Were the Bosnians listening?
In "the end, the future is up to you--not to the Americans, not to the Europeans, not to anyone else," Clinton told politicians gathered in the Austro-Hungarian-era National Theater. "The world which continues to invest in your peace rightfully expects that you will do your part. . . . The people of this country expect results, and they deserve them."
The principal obstacles to building a stable democracy in a peaceful Bosnia-Herzegovina are the very nationalist politicians who continue to rule the country--and who formed Clinton's privileged audience. In fact, Clinton was pushing the Bosnians to do their part in the building of their nation at the very same time that international mediators, frustrated at Bosnian leaders' obstructionism, have begun to impose laws and solutions to problems--from passport design to national currency--that the Bosnians refused to resolve.
The most intransigent of the bunch--Momcilo Krajisnik, the Bosnian Serb member of the country's three-man presidency--apparently boycotted Clinton's national address.
He was nowhere to be seen at the theater, after attending an earlier meeting with Clinton at Sarajevo's museum. (Clinton aides later quoted Krajisnik as complaining that the U.S.-brokered peace accords that ended Bosnia's war in December 1995 have since been revised to the disadvantage of the Serbs.)
And others were taking away varying interpretations of Clinton's remarks. Muslim leaders emphasized his decision to maintain troops in Bosnia but downplayed any criticisms directed at them.
"He said the right thing--that the Americans have agreed to stay here," said Ejup Ganic, a Muslim who is vice president of the Muslim-Croat Federation, which rules half of Bosnia.
Mirza Hajric--spokesman for Alija Izetbegovic, the Muslim member of the presidency--noted of Clinton: "Everything he said, we liked. There are expectations we need to live up to, and we reconfirmed our intentions to do so. . . . He was clear in saying patience is running out."
