
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, November 9, 1993                   TAG: 9311090011
SECTION: NATL/INTL                    PAGE: A-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: GENEVA                                LENGTH: Short

YUGOSLAVIA MARKS PAINFUL BIRTH TODAY

Euphoria was in the air when politicians from Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia met on the shores of Lake Geneva at the end of World War I and agreed to join in a Yugoslav state.

But the brutality, devious diplomacy and human misery that accompanied the state's creation foreshadowed future Balkan conflicts. Seventy-five years later, ethnic battles have dismembered Yugoslavia.

On Nov. 9, 1918, Serbian premier Nikola Pasic signed a unity declaration with Slovenian and Croatian leaders in Geneva.

Five days before, the Austro-Hungarian empire's surrender in World War I had sealed independence for Croatia and Slovenia. Buoyed by new-found freedom but wary of Italy, which coveted their land, Croatians and Slovenians were eager to join a southern Slav state. The war ended before winter, but a breakdown of public order triggered strife in the newly freed areas.

Pasic declared there would be "fine days" ahead thanks to "11 million hard-working and resolutely patriotic residents" in the new state.

But grand words meant little then - and equally grand statements from Serb politicians this year did not stop the 13-month Geneva peace talks on Bosnia from failing last September.

by CNB