Croatians Bosnia Herzegovina

Ethnic Croats frustrated by delays in a promised evacuation tried to walk out of this besieged city Saturday, but they were turned back by armed guards. The guns were mostly silent in the capital, but the fighting raged on elsewhere in the country. And for the first time, U.N. peacekeepers fired back when their vehicles were attacked. British soldiers on a reconnaissance mission returned fire after they drove into a gun battle at Ribnica, 20 miles south of Tuzla, in central Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The international administrator in Bosnia-Herzegovina warned Croat separatists Saturday that he will not submit to "mob rule" and rejected dialogue with hard-liners threatening the breakup of this ethnically fragile country. Wolfgang Petritsch, the international community's high representative, issued the warning after a day of widespread rioting in southwestern Bosnia.

An ethnic carve-up of Bosnia-Herzegovina might fulfill nationalist dreams of a Greater Croatia, but opposition leaders, human rights advocates and even some allies of President Franjo Tudjman are beginning to see the expansion drive as the greatest peril confronting the country. Partitioning Bosnia into three ethnic ministates would lead to a Greater Serbia on Croatia's border and maroon at least two-thirds of Bosnia's 750,000 Croats in resentful Serbian and Muslim enclaves.

Bosnian Croats stoned NATO peacekeepers, overturned vehicles and attacked employees of international organizations Friday after police and troops seized a major bank used by Bosnian Croat nationalists seeking to form their own ministate. Twenty-one peacekeepers--including two Americans--were slightly injured in the melee in the southern city of Mostar, NATO spokesman Lt. Lars Anderson said. The others injured were from Italy, France, Spain and Morocco, he said.

In a move aimed at heading off further instability in the Balkans, the United States on Sunday persuaded Bosnia's Croatian and Muslim leaders to rededicate themselves to a shaky federation formed last March.

On paper, at least, the nationalist Bosnian Croat ministate of Herceg-Bosna was to begin dissolving at midnight Saturday as part of a U.S.-led effort to turn Bosnia's fragile Muslim-Croat federation into reality. Under the same plan, about 40 institutions and functions of the Muslim-led Bosnian government, including its secret police, were to be transferred to the federation or abolished. U.S.

Bosnian Croats stoned NATO peacekeepers, overturned vehicles and attacked employees of international organizations Friday after police and troops seized a major bank used by Bosnian Croat nationalists seeking to form their own ministate. Twenty-one peacekeepers--including two Americans--were slightly injured in the melee in the southern city of Mostar, NATO spokesman Lt. Lars Anderson said. The others injured were from Italy, France, Spain and Morocco, he said.

The international administrator in Bosnia-Herzegovina warned Croat separatists Saturday that he will not submit to "mob rule" and rejected dialogue with hard-liners threatening the breakup of this ethnically fragile country. Wolfgang Petritsch, the international community's high representative, issued the warning after a day of widespread rioting in southwestern Bosnia.

Bosnian Muslims and Croats continued talks aimed at reaching a compromise plan to jointly govern the southwestern city of Mostar. The European Union--which has administered Mostar since 1994--had threatened to withdraw by midnight Saturday unless the town's Muslim and Croatian leaders agreed to abide by recent elections and share power. In Washington, meanwhile, the White House dismissed as "complete fabrication" a report that the U.S.

The callers to Radio 99's phone-in program were angry and bewildered Saturday. A 16-year-old girl wept for a sister killed in a war that suddenly seemed lost. Soldiers asked, "What were we fighting for?" An amputee demanded that the government he felt had betrayed him and other victims resign.

In the battle to win Bosnia's peace, thousands of NATO troops join legions of foreign bureaucrats with a multibillion-dollar arsenal of tanks, helicopters and aid money. There is also a simpler weapon: the black felt pen. In many Bosnian schools, it is not enough to teach history, art and grammar to the nation's Croatian, Serbian and Muslim children; they're also taught to hate those from other ethnic groups.

During his arraignment before the U.N. war crimes tribunal, Gen. Momir Talic, the Bosnian Serb military chief of staff, pleaded innocent to charges of committing crimes against humanity in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The tribunal in The Hague did not set a trial date for Talic, who was indicted in March along with former Bosnian Serb Cabinet minister Radislav Brdjanin. They are accused of planning and orchestrating a bloody purge of more than 100,000 Muslims and Croats in 1992.

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright waded into Bosnia's crucial national election campaign Sunday, working both overtly and behind the scenes to promote candidates who pledge to rebuild the Balkan nation torn apart by 3 1/2 years of war and divided since by lingering ethnic hatreds. Although elections have been held in Bosnia since the fighting here ended in late 1995, the upcoming vote--scheduled for Sept.

Bosnia's Muslim-Croat Federation is now the focus of U.S. diplomatic efforts and needs to do much more to speed the peace process, U.S. Balkans special envoy Robert Gelbard said Saturday. After a successful meeting with Croatian President Franjo Tudjman in Zagreb, Gelbard said a new moderate government in Bosnia-Herzegovina's Serb Republic meant that it was the Muslim-Croat Federation that was now dragging its feet on implementing peace accords.

The inauguration Saturday of a relatively moderate and apparently cooperative government here in the Serb-controlled half of Bosnia opens a new chapter in the West's efforts to bring peace and stability to this war-wrecked region.

After months of secret negotiations with U.S. officials, one of the most notorious war crimes suspects to emerge from the Bosnian conflict surrendered Monday with nine of his comrades-in-arms, to await international trial.

Bosnia's Muslims and Croats moved closer by selecting a joint government, but Bosnian Serbs remained doggedly outside efforts to establish peace after 26 months of war. The current head of Bosnia's federal government, Prime Minister Haris Silajdzic, was chosen to also lead the federation government. The assembly also agreed on a Cabinet that includes 14 Muslims, 13 Croats and one Serb. But the federation government lacks one basic prerequisite: territory.

After months of secret negotiations with U.S. officials, one of the most notorious war crimes suspects to emerge from the Bosnian conflict surrendered Monday with nine of his comrades-in-arms, to await international trial.

The United States will supply Bosnia's Muslim-Croat Federation with more than 100 heavy-artillery cannons, officials said Friday, dramatically escalating that army's potential firepower. The weapons are part of a $100-million train-and-equip program for the Muslim-Croat army, sponsored by Washington and heavily criticized by European allies. James Pardew, the U.S.

A ship carrying $100 million in U.S. military equipment for Bosnia's Muslim-Croat federation moved away from the port of Ploce in neighboring Croatia without unloading its cargo as U.S. and Bosnian officials attempted to work out political disputes. A key dispute is over Washington's demand that the federation fire its deputy defense minister, Hasan Cengic, whom it suspects has maintained close ties to Iran. The federation appeared to be ignoring that demand.