December 6, 1995
Web posted at: 10:00 a.m. EST (1500 GMT)
(CNN) -- While NATO diplomats have closed the door on renegotiating the Bosnian peace agreement, as demanded by Bosnian Serbs, the United States for the first time is indicating that Serbs' concerns will be considered.
At NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, U.S. Secretary of
State Warren Christopher said Wednesday the implementation of
the agreement reached in Dayton, Ohio, must be done with
"sensitivity to the concerns of the parties," including the
Bosnian Serbs living in the suburbs of Sarajevo. Residents
there are incensed that they will live under the Muslim
control.
Russian Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev joined the British and French in echoing the Bosnian Serb complaints. Kozyrev said "there is always room to accommodate legitimate concerns and problems" without renegotiating the Dayton pact. Those concerns will be discussed Friday in London in a conference over implementing the accord.
Previously, Christopher and others had responded to Serb concerns by repeating only that the agreement would not be revised, and by pointing out that Bosnian Serbs had authorized Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic to negotiate for them.
The principals to the agreement are expected to gather in Paris on December 14 to formally sign it. President Clinton is scheduled to go, but CNN has learned his Russian counterpart, Boris Yeltsin, will not be there. The Russian leader is still recuperating from heart troubles.
Meanwhile, the first United States military plane to leave
for Bosnia-Herzegovina landed in Tuzla in northern Bosnia on
Wednesday. It was the first fixed-wing aircraft to land in
Tuzla since May 31, 1994. Tuzla will be home to the
headquarters of the U.S. contingent of Operation Joint
Endeavour, the NATO effort to enforce the peace agreement.
The cargo plane took off from the Ramstein air base in
Germany loaded with reconnaissance and communications
equipment and 12 specialists who are part of the NATO
enabling force. That group of 2,500 will prepare the way for
the 60,000 troops who will make up IFOR, as the NATO force is
known.
One of the challenges facing the enabling force is to make the Tuzla airfield operational. Three-hundred Air Force personnel will install new equipment to control an eventual 20 to 30 flights a day.
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