Herzegovina

WASHINGTON -- The United States accused Serbia yesterday of acting as an "aggressor" in trying to seize control of large parts of neighboring Bosnia-Herzegovina and considered new steps to isolate the Bel- grade government as an international pariah.Among options is the reduction, downgrading or removal altogether of U.S. diplomatic representation in Belgrade, officials said.The new pressure reflects the growing importance of the Yugoslav conflict in the eyes of U.S. policy-makers. Content for months to take a back seat to the European Community as the Yugoslav federation fell apart, officials now see a stronger U.S. role as important in showing a continuing commitment to European security.

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina -- Moving to end a volatile power struggle that has increasingly sucked in NATO peacekeepers, the Western-backed Bosnian Serb president agreed yesterday with her hard-line rivals to new elections and shared access to state television.The agreement, brokered in Belgrade by Slobodan Milosevic, the president of neighboring Yugoslavia, was seen by international mediators as a breakthrough.The deal is aimed at resolving a stubborn impasse that pitted Bosnian Serb President Biljana Plavsic against allies of indicted war-crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic.

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.

BRCKO, Bosnia-Herzegovina -- Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright completed a two-day visit yesterday to the Balkans that brought few immediate results but appeared to inject a new sense of urgency into the uphill process of rebuilding the war-ravaged region.After meeting in Sarajevo with Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic and walking through some of the most damaged parts of the capital, Albright traveled to this northern Bosnian town to celebrate a modest but important achievement of her visit -- the reopening of a one-lane bridge across the Sava River connecting northern Bosnia-Herzegovina to Croatia and the rest of Europe.

MCLEAN, Va. - President Bush's reaffirmation two weeks ago in Kosovo that American forces will remain in the Balkans is bad news for those long bent on obstructing the Dayton peace process in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Bush administration now needs to impart a fresh sense of determination to achieve the goal of a just peace among Bosnia's Muslims, Croats and Serbs, including those who wish only to be known as Bosnians. Policies, however, need success stories. The conflicted Bosnian city of Brcko is one such story.

WASHINGTON -- A Serbian opposition leader charged yesterday that American and European recognition of Bosnia-Herzegovina in April doomed prospects of agreement among its three ethnic groups and thus contributed to the current fighting."

PALE, Bosnia-Herzegovina -- As NATO warplanes wheeled and turned above the houses and military sites strung along this mountain valley where Bosnian Serbs have made their capital, Savica Kovac simply continued to prepare coffee for her husband.When what appeared to be a surface-to-air missile rose to attack the jets yesterday, Mrs. Kovac smiled and clenched her hand into a fist.While the planes escaped, many in this small town seemed eager to resist the demands made by Western powers and perplexed about why the rest of the world wants to impose its will on the Bosnian Serbs.

WASHINGTON -- Reflecting a debate about the use of U.S. forces in regional conflicts, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is questioning even the most limited forms of military intervention to protect the Muslims in Bosnia and Herzegovina or to try to stop the fighting.In a lengthy and sometimes emotional interview, the chairman, Gen. Colin L. Powell, offered a strong defense of his philosophy that military force is best used to achieve a decisive victory and for the first time publicly explained his reluctance to intervene in Bosnia.

Boston -- American opinion is moving hesitantly toward military intervention in the former Yugoslavia.Elite opinion: The matter is not on the popular or political agendas -- but neither was Kuwait two years ago this spring. The parallel between the Persian Gulf and Bosnia-Herzegovina may yet catch the attention of President Bush, in these pre-election days.The official American position remains that military intervention is not under consideration.The press calls for more severe economic and political reprisals against Serbia for its aggressions, but some in the press and the policy community now are arguing that the threat, and if necessary the use, of military force has become a necessity not only to check the killing in Bosnia-Herzegovina but to validate the principle the United States and the international community attempted to establish during the Iraq crisis and its aftermath.

MOSTAR, Bosnia-Herzegovina -- The ruins of the dream of a peaceful future for Balkan republics are nowhere more visible than in the rubble of this historic town.Serbian forces have blown up six major bridges, burned hundreds of homes and businesses and wrecked both of the principal religious centers, a modern Catholic cathedral and a stately 15th-century mosque.From nearby hills, Serbian gunners are still shelling Mostar, but there is little left to destroy. Streets once lined with tour buses are now littered with the debris of war, and a community that was once thought to symbolize friendship among Serbs, Croats and Muslims is now gone, a victim of the bitter hatreds fueling this war.Probably no large town in Bosnia and Herzegovina has suffered as much damage as Mostar.