Rain, NATO Dampen It, but Conflict Simmers in Mostar

MOSTAR, Bosnia-Herzegovina —  Rain and NATO armored personnel carriers appeared to ease the violence in this divided city Monday, if only momentarily, but the weaknesses at the center of the Bosnian peace plan lay bare following a rash of Muslim-Croatian shootings.

The killing of a Bosnian Muslim youth by Bosnian Croat police and of a Croatian police officer, and the wounding of two Muslim policemen--all in the first week of the new year--raised the specter of renewed all-out warfare between enemies who stopped fighting only 1 1/2 years ago.

While attention has focused on the conflict between Bosnian Serb separatists and their Muslim foes, it is the cooperation between Muslims and Croats that is supposed to serve as the foundation of the U.S.-brokered peace plan. Under it, the Muslim-Croat federation will rule 51% of Bosnia-Herzegovina and form the counterbalance to a Bosnian Serb ministate.

“The [Muslim-Croat] federation needs a lot of work,” conceded Lt. Gen. William G. Carter, chief of staff to the commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization-led peace force in Bosnia, U.S. Adm. Leighton W. Smith.

Mostar, a south-central Bosnian city that was the scene of fierce fighting between Muslims and Croats in 1993 and early 1994, is the capital of the federation. As part of a peace settlement, the Muslims, who live on the devastated east side of town, and the Croats, who live in the west, are supposed to agree on ways to unify the city. But many Croats, especially, prefer division and would rather be part of neighboring Croatia.

On Monday, the mayors of the Muslim and Croatian sectors appealed for calm and pledged their cooperation to the European Union administrator who oversees Mostar, Hans Koschnick.

Yet at the same time, Croatian police pulled out of a special investigation into the shootings, saying they would not work with their Muslim counterparts, according to EU sources.

EU officials said that one of the most vexing problems in attempting to reach political agreement is the difficulty of holding Croatian officials, especially, accountable.

Martin Garrod, chief of staff to the EU administration of Mostar, said that after 18 months here, he still does not really know who is in charge. The civilian authorities rarely seem to be the ones calling the shots, he said.

Regional warlords and military commanders who exploit hard-line nationalism have long held sway in Mostar and western Bosnia. Many here blame the surge in violence on those who have profited from war and whose interests would be hurt by peace.

The mayor of the Muslim sector, meanwhile, complained that the positioning of Spanish NATO armored personnel carriers along the central boulevard that divides the city constituted a de facto confirmation of the division, something the Muslims staunchly oppose.

“IFOR [the NATO-led Implementation Force] is not the solution for Mostar,” said the mayor, Safet Orucevic. “IFOR stands along the division line. . . . Division between Muslims and Croats means the failure of the Dayton agreement.”

Orucevic said he would nevertheless propose to NATO that it send forces to patrol alongside EU and local police--a suggestion that once again raises questions about NATO’s mission here as it struggles to resist becoming a police force.

Koschnick, who went on east Mostar television Monday to reassure Muslims, rejected the idea that a NATO presence legitimized division.

“That [division] is unacceptable to me,” he said. “If I am asked to oversee division, I would resign.”

Basic philosophical differences reflected in visions of Mostar as a divided or unified city seem irreconcilable. As in the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, those who would stand to lose--in Sarajevo, it’s the Serbs; in Mostar, it’s the Croats--steadfastly refuse to be forced to live alongside Muslims or under Muslim authorities.

Under the accord reached in Dayton, Ohio, in November, NATO is obliged to enforce the terms of the agreement that will unite Sarajevo and place Serb-held suburbs under the Muslim-led government’s control. But Mostar is left in the hands of the EU, whose mandate ends in July and whose inclination is not to force an agreement.