Bosnian peace talks open in Ohio U.S. official sees 'no readiness for compromise'

November 1, 1995

Web posted at: 11:10 a.m. EST (1610 GMT)

From Correspondent Steve Hurst and wire reports

DAYTON, Ohio (CNN) -- The chief U.S. negotiator for Bosnian peace talks beginning Wednesday has high hopes, but in an interview with CNN, just hours before the three-sided negotiations were to start, Assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke took a realistic tone. "They talk peace, but they don't show the slightest readiness for compromise. That's to be expected," he said (128K AIFF sound or 128K WAV sound).

"The talks will succeed," promised President Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia on his arrival Tuesday at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Planes carrying Milosevic and presidents Alija Izetbegovic of Bosnia and Franjo Tudjman of Croatia to the site near Dayton, Ohio landed within hours of each other.

Live CNN coverage begins at 2:30 p.m. EST, 1930 GMT.

Secretary of State Warren Christopher will formally open the talks, which will include British, French, German and Russian negotiators. No date has been set for the conclusion, although Izetbegovic said he did not believe negotiations would last very long. Tudjman expressed optimism about the talks, saying he would not have come to the United States if he did not believe in a successful outcome. Tudjman plans to leave after two days but his three senior aides will stay on.

What's at stake

Of the many hurdles ahead, Holbrooke said organizing elections would be one of the toughest. "That may sound like a small issue but that's how the war started," he said (112K AIFF sound or 112K WAV sound).

A shaky cease-fire is now in effect in Bosnia. Presidents Milosevic, Tudjman and Izetbegovic also have agreed on a constitutional blueprint that would create two separate political entities within a single, united Bosnian state.

But other issues remain unresolved. They include a truce and the separation of forces, maps of the exact territorial division of Bosnia, the status of Sarajevo and the fate of Eastern Slavonia, the last slice of Croatia still occupied by rebel Serbs. Tudjman has threatened to send Croatia to war if an agreement is not reached by the end of November. (More from Holbrooke - 152K AIFF sound or 152K WAV sound))

"I'm not here to promise you success, only our best efforts."

-- Richard Holbrooke, Asst. Secretary of State

Holbrooke's shuttle missions to the former Yugoslavia laid the groundwork for the conference. "I'm not here to promise you success, only our best efforts," he said after arriving at the air base Tuesday. Earlier, Holbrooke and other members of the U.S. negotiating team met with President Clinton, who said the talks may be "the last chance we have for a very long time" to end the war.

In his Wednesday interview with CNN, Holbrooke also re- emphasized the Clinton administration's promise not to send U.S. troops to Bosnia as part of a NATO peacekeeping force until an agreement is reached at the Dayton talks. "If there's no peace, no deployment," he said, adding "there's no peace without an American and NATO involvement."

Holbrooke said a large table set up for the warring factions to hold joint negotiating sessions "is going be used very rarely. Formal meetings are not where you make progress." Instead, international negotiators will go from room to room, talking with delegates from the individual countries. After Tuesday's public opening session, Holbrooke said, there will be little news coming from the talks. "We can not negotiate in public," he said.

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