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TIME: Almanac 1995
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TIME Almanac 1995.iso
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1102995.000
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1994-03-25
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<text id=92TT2483>
<title>
Nov. 02, 1992: Running the Balkans' Deadly Gauntlet
</title>
<history>
TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1992
Nov. 02, 1992 Bill Clinton's Long March
</history>
<article>
<source>Time Magazine</source>
<hdr>
THE WEEK, Page 14
WORLD
Running the Balkans' Deadly Gauntlet
</hdr><body>
<p>New fighting locks Bosnia's Muslims between Croat and Serb
enemies
</p>
<p> Only figuratively was there a gun to his head, but that was
sufficient. In Geneva the diplomatic efforts of
Bosnia-Herzegovina's President Alija Izetbegovic fell into step
with the daunting military reality at home. With his mostly
Muslim government forces in control of less than a 10th of the
republic's territory, Izetbegovic acquiesced to a proposal by
U.N. mediators to allow his country to be divided into 10
autonomous regions. Negotiators stressed that boundaries would
be drawn strictly on geographical and economic rather than
ethnic criteria, with some functions preserved for the Sarajevo
government. But because Izetbegovic has announced that he will
resign by January, working out those crucial details will
probably fall to someone else.
</p>
<p> The grim prospect of such a partition between Croatian and
Serbian regions grew with the outbreak of fierce fighting in
several towns of central Bosnia. This time, instead of fighting
Serbs, the government forces struggled with their erstwhile
allies, the Croats. Aside from signaling the probable end to an
uneasy but crucial alliance for the besieged Muslims, this
latest fighting further threatened efforts to provide
humanitarian aid to Bosnia. Vitez, 31 miles northwest of
Sarajevo, was supposed to be the forward base for a British
regiment scheduled for deployment next month to protect aid
convoys; a reconnaissance group was pinned down by cross fire
there on Tuesday. Shelling in Kiseljak, directly under the
flight approach to Sarajevo, was so fierce by Wednesday that the
U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees halted its vital airlift to
the capital, then gingerly started up again the next day.
</p>
<p> UNHCR drivers were unable to get any aid into Sarajevo on
the ground last week. Croats halted aid trucks bound for Muslim
areas at roadblocks near Mostar and Tomislavgrad. Attempts to
negotiate back roads, turned to mud by rain, were abandoned
after one truck bearing five tons of badly needed aid slipped
into a ravine.
</p>
</body></article>
</text>