ROANOKE TIMES 

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

DATE: SATURDAY, March 19, 1994                   TAG: 9403190063
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

MUSLIMS, CROATS SIGN PACT

Bosnia's Muslim-dominated government and Bosnian Croats signed an agreement Friday that links their territories into a single federation, a move that aims to isolate the Bosnian Serbs and pressure them to make peace, as well.

Administration officials said that the agreement was one indicator that an overall peace might be in the offing in Bosnia.

The brightened prospects, they said, are also a result of American and Russian pressures on the Bosnian Serbs to make territorial concessions to the new federation.

To induce the Serbs to make peace, the United States and its Western allies are offering to seek the lifting of U.N. economic sanctions on Serbia, which supports the Bosnian Serbs.

The accord creating the federation was signed by Prime Minister Haris Silajdzic of Bosnia and a representative of the Bosnian Croats, Kresimir Zubac. Then the presidents of Bosnia and Croatia, Alija Izetbegovic and Franjo Tudjman, signed a second agreement that forms a loose confederation between Croatia and the new Bosnian federation.

President Clinton, who presided over the signing ceremony, said, "The agreements signed today offer one of the first clear signals that parties of this conflict are willing to end the violence and begin a process of reconstruction."

The agreements, reached over the last month, remain provisional until the new federation reaches a compromise over territory with the Serbs. Only then can a map of the federation's boundaries be drawn.

Because Serbia is eager to see the sanctions phased out, it may now push the Bosnian Serbs to make territorial concessions in Bosnia, several diplomats suggested.

"We're closer now than we've ever been to achieving peace," an administration official said. "Serbia is weary of the sanctions. NATO's willingness to act has changed the dynamics, and Russia is playing a constructive role. But that fact that we're closer than before to peace doesn't mean we're going to get it." 


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