Bosnia

WATERTOWN, N.Y. -- They're known simply as "the Tenth," and since 1991 they've become the most called-upon Army unit in a generation. They've marched across Iraqi deserts, skirmished with ragtag troops on Somalian streets and stood tall in Haiti.Now the 10th Mountain Division is preparing for its biggest deployment since it was created to ski and fight in Italy in World War II. Beginning in July, the first wave of 5,600 soldiers will depart from this corner of New York. They'll take with them months of intensive training in urban warfare, Balkan culture and refugee assistance.

WASHINGTON -- War crimes prosecutors are using some of NATO's most secret intelligence to build cases against Yugoslavia's top political and military leaders. But there are concerns that the alliance's diplomatic deal-making will allow Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic to escape justice.While leaders in the United States, Russia and other countries work feverishly on a diplomatic plan to end the 8-week-old conflict, prosecutors with the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia at The Hague, Netherlands, are collecting information on the roles of Milosevic and his top commanders in atrocities in Kosovo.

Taxpayers' dollars for Bosnia were not lost or stolenOn Aug. 17, The Sun carried a report from the New York Times indicating that up to $1 billion in local money and international aid had been stolen or lost in Bosnia ("Bosnian corruption cost as much as $1 billion"). Some news organizations even reported that all $1 billion allegedly lost or stolen was international aid -- some of it from U.S. taxpayers.These reports are false and, if left unchallenged, could have a pernicious effect on American foreign policy.

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina -- As much as $1 billion dollars has disappeared from public funds or been stolen from international aid projects through fraud carried out by the Muslim, Croatian and Serbian nationalist leaders who keep Bosnia rigidly partitioned into three ethnic enclaves, according to an exhaustive investigation by an American-led anti-fraud unit.The anti-fraud unit, set up by the Office of the High Representative, the international agency responsible for carrying out the civilian aspects of the Dayton peace agreement, has exposed so much corruption that relief agencies and embassies are reluctant to publicize the thefts for fear of frightening away international donors.

Albanian refugees fresh from the crime scene of Kosovo have documented the world's case against Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic.By bearing witness to the brutal campaign of expulsion and massacre carried out by his army and police force, they brought on the May 27 indictment of Milosevic by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, in The Hague, Netherlands.But the tribunal's investigators, an idealistic bunch with an eye on the bigger picture, are working an even bigger case, one that has yet to yield results.

WASHINGTON -- As international troops stream into Kosovo, plans are under way to pull thousands of U.S. and allied soldiers out of Bosnia and Herzegovina, prompting fears that a tenuous peace and unfinished business in the former Yugoslav republic may be sacrificed on the altar of a new peacekeeping effort.About 34,000 NATO-led troops -- including 6,200 Americans -- are patrolling in Bosnia, enforcing the Dayton peace accords that four years ago halted fighting between Serbs, Croats and Muslims that cost 250,000 lives and produced 2.7 million refugees and displaced persons, nearly a million of whom have not returned to their homes.

On a pleasant May morning six years ago, Mother Teodora, 72, welcomed her visitor to the Gracanica monastery in the middle of Kosovo. A hundred miles away in Bosnia a war was raging. But at this medieval shrine of Serbian Orthodox Christianity, pastoral tranquillity reigned.She wiped the dirt of an onion field from her hands to pour a shot of homemade plum brandy. Then she spoke of the Albanians who decades earlier had taken root in her Serbian heartland and now made up 90 percent of the population.

WASHINGTON -- American warplanes shot down two Yugoslav MiG-29 fighters yesterday over Bosnia as the MiGs streaked toward some of the 30,000 NATO peacekeeping troops, including about 7,000 Americans, who are stationed there.The offensive into Bosnia was a sign that, far from yielding in the face of NATO airstrikes, a defiant President Slobodan Milosevic may be seeking to spread the war to other Balkan nations by targeting NATO troops outside Yugoslavia."It's certainly a serious event, certainly a serious challenge," said Kenneth Bacon, a Pentagon spokesman.

BIJELJINA, Bosnia-Herzegovina -- U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright waded into Bosnia's crucial national election campaign yesterday, working both overtly and behind the scenes to promote candidates who pledge to rebuild the Balkan nation torn apart by 3 1/2 years of war and divided since by lingering ethnic hatreds.Although elections have been held in Bosnia since the fighting ended in late 1995, the coming vote -- scheduled for Sept. 13-14 -- will mark the first time that ethnic Croats and Serbs have had a genuine choice between candidates.

World needs treaty's criminal court -- a Canadian viewI note that your editorial ("World Court proposal is deeply flawed," July 22) acknowledges the need for an International Criminal Court. I am disappointed, however, that you dismiss so lightly the proposed treaty to create such a court as it was adopted in Rome by 120 countries.Widespread killings of civilians in Rwanda and Bosnia -- genocide is not too strong a word -- have highlighted the need for an international criminal court. The international tribunals established in those cases are a good first step.

When Amina Jugo moved with her family to the United States from Mostar, Bosnia, seven years ago, she met another Bosnian youngster, Azra Hosic, who talked her into playing club volleyball. Now Jugo, 5 feet 7, is a strong outside hitter for the Bluebirds. A 17-year-old senior, she is enrolled in the International Baccalaureate program at Kenwood and has a 3.6 grade-point average. She is active in the National Honor Society and has been involved with the literary magazine and the Model United Nations.

Nature center moving to Owings Mills The Irvine Nature Center will close its building on the grounds of St. Timothy's School in Stevenson as of tomorrow to prepare to move to a new facility in Owings Mills. The new building, at 11201 Garrison Forest Road, is scheduled to open to the public Aug. 23. A grand opening gala for adults only will be held at 6 p.m. Sept. 12 at the new center, featuring the Jody Westerlund Band, food and a look at the facility. Tickets are $100 and reservations are required.

TUZLA, Bosnia -- It begins with the translation of the doctor's introductory query: "How may I help you today?" What follows are the typical answers and explanations, and more questions. Not much different from a visit to the family physician - except the translator is a Serbian army officer, the patient is an elderly Muslim woman, and the doctor is an internist from Baltimore, a member of the Maryland Air National Guard who recognizes the patient's achy knees and back as the pain of arthritis.

R. Nicholas Burns, undersecretary of state for political affairs, recently put Balkan issues back on the front burner when he pressured Bosnia's Serb, Muslim and Croat leaders to replace the country's three-person, multiethnic presidency with a single president. That step is needed, he said, to create a stronger, more cohesive state. He added that there should be a firm commitment to such reforms by the time Balkan leaders visit Washington this month to mark the 10th anniversary of the Dayton accords that ended the Bosnian civil war. Dayton, Mr. Burns intoned, has served its purpose and now needs to "evolve."

Alija Izetbegovic, a devout Muslim whose religion and politics landed him in Yugoslav jails but who went on to lead the Bosnian people through a cataclysmic war and eventually into independence, died yesterday in a Sarajevo hospital. He was 78. Izetbegovic, who suffered from chronic heart disease, was admitted to the hospital Sept. 10 with broken bones and bruises from a fall. His condition became critical Friday, when doctors were unable to stop bleeding in his left lung, the hospital said.

EAGLE BASE, Bosnia - Douglas Maser, a health care lawyer from Cleveland, runs the hospital. Char Norton, the owner of an international food service company in Houston, is the head nurse. Delonce Hines, a legal clerk from Philadelphia, inspects Bosnian Army weapons storage sites, and Raymond Hernandez, an air conditioning technician from Philadelphia, clears minefields. Here, they are known as Colonel Maser, Colonel Norton, Specialist Hines and Corporal Hernandez, and all have been called up by the National Guard or Army Reserves, leaving jobs and families back home as they take over peace-keeping duties in Bosnia.

WASHINGTON -- On paper, the exercise in democracy was impressive. Fifty-seven Bosnian political parties fielded more than 7,500 candidates for local and federal offices, including the three-person rotating presidency. If there was a somewhat jarring note in the campaign, it was supplied by Bosnia's foreign patrons who lobbied against the three militant ethnic parties that originally were responsible for the 1992-95 civil war. Secretary of State Colin Powell urged Bosnians to support political parties committed to building a multi-ethnic democracy.

WASHINGTON -- The recent showdown between the United States and the rest of the United Nations Security Council over the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Bosnia was a setback not just for those who care about Bosnia or believe in strengthening international law. Rather, the brinkmanship added a new layer of tension between the United States and key allies such as Britain, France and Canada. It lent credibility to those around the world who worry about U.S. arrogance and unilateralism. And it threw into question a much more fundamental issue: whether the Bush administration is willing to participate in peacekeeping -- not just in Bosnia, but anywhere.

FOR A few days in early April, the trees on Furrow Avenue in Ellicott City were decorated with yellow ribbons. On April 4, residents on the street found a note in their mailboxes: "My husband, Roger Weaver, has been on active duty with the Maryland National Guard, serving as a helicopter pilot in Bosnia on a peace-keeping mission for the last eight months," it read, in part. "He will be arriving home on Friday [April 5]. We have planned a little welcome home gathering." The note, signed by Becky Weaver, urged neighbors to come "join us for some cake and punch."

WASIHNGTON - The mission of 3,500 NATO troops in Macedonia, including Americans, is billed as short and simple - disarm ethnic Albanian rebels and leave in 30 days. Instead, it is a perilous enterprise that is ill-thought-through and almost certainly destined for failure. Yes, a peace treaty has been signed. The ethnic Albanians say they will hand over their weapons on a tandem track as the Macedonians in this tiny country enact laws to give them more rights. Will that happen? Almost anyone on the ground will reply with a resounding no. The violence and ethnic hatreds have already pushed too far. The situation is much like that in Bosnia as the shelling of Sarajevo began.