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Yugoslavia And Bosnia Seek To Heal War Wounds With New Ties
by Katerina Subasic
BELGRADE (AFP) - Bosnia and Yugoslavia established diplomatic relations Friday nearly a decade after the breakup of the Yugoslav federation that sparked the 1992-1995 war, the worst conflict in Europe since World War II.
Foreign Minister Goran Svilanovic and his Bosnian counterpart Jadranko Prlic signed a protocol establishing ties during a ceremony held at the Yugoslav foreign ministry building.
The chief diplomats also pledged to work together to draft other accords and looked beyond their borders to the situation in the Balkans as a whole following Yugoslavia's wars of secession.
"The signing creates the foundations that will ensure that war will no longer be possible in this region," said Prlic.
"We are completely ready to have open, fair and equal relations. I think that we have found that Yugoslav officials are ready to be our partners to finally achieve those principles," Prlic said.
Yugoslavia, under new reformist President Vojislav Kotunica, is seeking to mend relations with the outside world that were wrecked by the aggressive policies of ousted leader Slobodan Milosevic.
Bosnia was the last former Yugoslav republic not to have established diplomatic relations with the rump of Yugoslavia - now made up of only Serbia and Montenegro.
Belgrade established diplomatic relations with Slovenia on December 9th and ties with Croatia and Macedonia were opened under the Milosevic regime.
Kostunica's visit to Sarajevo in October was seen as a breakthrough in the drive to normalize relations.
For his part, Svilanovic noted that "this step should have been taken years ago" and urged Yugoslavs and Bosnians to make the opening of ties between governments a reality on the people's level.
"I want to send a message both to the Bosnian people and to our people that we have to take decisive steps to build up confidence among nations and states in the region," Svilanovic said.
"That is in everybody's interest in the Balkans and certainly in the interest of all countries of the former Yugoslavia," he said.
In line with the 1995 Dayton agreement that ended the Bosnian war, Belgrade recognized Bosnia's territorial integrity but the protocol provides for "a special relationship" between Serbia and their ethnic brethren in Republika Srpska, the Bosnian Serb republic.
Kostunica is planning to attend the inauguration of new Bosnian Serb President Mirko Sarovic in the Bosnian city of Banja Luka, the SRNA news agency reported.
It was with Belgrade's backing that Serbs in Bosnia waged war against Croats and Muslims in a conflict that claimed over 250,000 lives and has left 1.2 million refugees five years after the end of the fighting.
It saw the worst single atrocity of the period, when Bosnian Serbs took control of the Muslim enclave of Srebrenica in 1995 and are believed to have massacred at least 7,000 people.
Svilanovic said Belgrade was not shunning its responsibility for the horrors of the past but that it was now "aware of all the challenges the future will bring, namely the challenge of recognizing what happened, what mistakes were made and what caused them."
Following Friday's talks, Bosnia will propose bilateral agreements on trade, investment, customs cooperation and railway traffic by the end of this year, Prlic said.
A number of additional agreements were to be prepared by early 2001.
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