Mr Richard Holbrooke, the US envoy who engineered Bosnia's peace agreement in 1995, arrived at a summit in Split, Croatia yesterday to spur Balkan leaders into speeding up the peace process. He joined the Croatian President, Mr Franjo Tudjman, and the Muslim chairman of Bosnia's collective presidency, Mr Alija Izetbegovic, at a villa in the Adriatic port where they began their much-delayed summit.
They were there to discuss Bosnia's Muslim-Croat Federation, which makes up half of the post-war country. Mr Tudjman in particular has faced international criticism for not supporting the federation, which was formed in 1994 following intensive US diplomacy.
"It's clear to me from what ambassador [Robert] Gelbard told me and from what I've observed, that progress is being made but at much too slow a pace," Mr Holbrooke said on his arrival at Split airport. "We're here to encapsulate what has happened and try to accelerate the process and keep it moving forward." Yesterday's summit was intended to provide Mr Tudjman with an opportunity to put into practice promises he made at his inauguration for a second term. Taking the oath in Zagreb on Tuesday, he pledged to support both the 1995 Dayton peace accords and the Muslim-Croat Federation.
He has been found wanting in his support of several aspects of Dayton. The US has been critical of his failure to influence Bosnian Croats who have refused to hand over suspected war criminals and have tried to undermine the federation in other ways. Mr Gelbard, the current US envoy to Bosnia, said he and Mr Holbrooke were concerned that there has been a significant lag in implementation on the part of all the parties to the Dayton accords. "We hope we can play a role in helping them achieve what they've committed themselves to achieve," he added.
Mr Izetbegovic and Mr Tudjman have had stormy relations ever since leading their republics to break away from the old Yugoslav federation. Under heavy Western pressure, however, Mr Tudjman pushed the Bosnian Croats in Mostar into agreeing to a unified police force last month.
"I solemnly declare that I shall be an impartial president of all Croats and Croatian citizens, regardless of their political and other affiliations," Mr Tudjman said during his swearing in ceremony, implying that he considers Croats in other countries as his subjects.
Bosnian Croats living across the border from Croatia see themselves as Croatian citizens - they vote in Croatian elections, their car licence plates are indistinguishable from Croatian plates and they use the Croatian flag and currency.
Croat-controlled towns in central Bosnia have begun allowing the return of Muslim refugees who were expelled during the 10month Muslim-Croat war in 1993. But over the weekend hundreds of Muslim refugees who had recently moved back to their pre-war homes around the Croat-controlled town of Jajce were forced to flee following intimidation and threats from Croat mobs. Croats destroyed a further eight houses in Jajce overnight to discourage Muslim refugees from returning, a NATO spokesman said yesterday.
The Former Bosnian Serb leader, Dr Radovan Karadzic, in an interview with a German newspaper, Suddeutsche Zeitung, has said that he is ready to stand trial in Republika Srpska, the Bosnian Serb-run half of Bosnia.
Such a trial could be held under the supervision of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, based in The Hague, which has indicted Dr Karadzic for war crimes.