ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times

DATE: Friday, December 15, 1995              TAG: 9512150099
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL   PAGE: A-1  EDITION: METRO 
DATELINE: PARIS
SOURCE: From Hearst Newspapers and and Knight-Ridder/Tribune 

WAR IN BOSNIA ENDS, ON PAPER BITTER FOES SIGN TREATY; TROOPS SET

Leaders representing Bosnia's contentious factions Thursday signed a peace treaty to end 3 1/2 years of bloodshed in the deadliest European conflict since World War II.

Whether the accord - with its intricate geographical division of the former Yugoslavian province and a multinational military force sent to police the deal - can quiet centuries of conflict remains in question.

``Seize this chance and make it work,'' President Clinton urged the solemn-faced presidents of Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia, whose nations have lost an estimated 250,000 dead to the fighting.

``You can do nothing to erase the past, but you can do everything to build the future. Do not let your children down.''

Other world leaders, gathered at the French presidential palace for a glittering but somber ceremony, also expressed hopes for a peace that holds. But the early signals were mixed.

Shells struck the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo at the hour of the Paris signing. The long-awaited mutual recognition of the new Balkan nations by one another did not immediately occur.

European leaders also watched nervously as 80,000 ethnic Serbs in Sarajevo pondered a mass exodus, as Muslim control of their neighborhoods approached.

Formal acceptance of the U.S.-brokered peace plan triggers full deployment of a 60,000-member NATO force. The 20,000-strong U.S. contingent will be the largest American military commitment of the Clinton administration and has only flimsy support from Congress.

To help solidify the peace, the Clinton administration announced Thursday that the United States will provide $85.6 million in immediate humanitarian aid to Bosnia. Roughly $60 million will help Bosnians cope with a winter of bitter weather and scarce fuel and food.

The White House called on the international community to commit money and energy to economic reconstruction. A three-year project would cost $6 billion, with the United States expected to contribute $600 million.

The treaty provides, on paper, a framework for a multiethnic Bosnia with two states and two armies, one controlled by rebel Serbs, the other by a Muslim-Croat federation.

The NATO-led force is to provide a buffer and a breathing space while elections are held and repairs to institutions and psyches are begun.

Clinton told CNN that ``it was difficult'' to shake the hand of Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, whose territorial ambitions incited the bloodshed. But he recalled the words of slain Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin: ``You don't make peace with your friends.''

Milosevic, for whom the peace treaty represents at least a deferral of his quest for a ``Greater Serbia,'' said the key to success for the international military forces will be their fairness.

LENGTH: Medium:   62 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:  AP. World leaders applaud as Slobodan Milosevic of 
          Serbia, (left) Franjo Tudjman of Croatia and Alija Izetbegovic of 
          Bosnia sign the treaty to end a war that killed 250,000 people. 
          color.