Through Bosnian Eyes: The Political Memoirs of a Bosnian Serb

XIV The Vance Owen Peace Plan

M. Pejanovic, THROUGH BOSNIAN EYES XIV. THE VANCE OWEN PEACE PLAN Toward the end of 1992, in the third month of the Geneva negotiations, we ·iri the Bosnian state delegation submitted our proposal for the constitutional organization and internal structure of the Bosnian state. Our suggestion was based on two ideas. First, the Bosnian state should be a community of citizens and nations with a two-Ochambered parliament. We envisioned a Council of Nations to protect the vital interests and national equality of the Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs. The second idea was that the state's internal organization should consist of thirteen regions, each with a distinct history and a great degree of autonomy, to be known as provinces. Professor Filipovic and I put together our proposal of 13 provinces one weekend in Zurich, with the help ofAdil Zulfikarpasic. (Filipovic was then Deputy President of ZulfikarpaSiC's MBO.) Later, in the final draft of the Vance-Owen Peace Plan, ten regions were envisioned: Banja Luka, Tuzla, Mostar, Bihac, Zenica, Bijeljina, Travnik, East Herzegovina, Posavina and Sarajevo..sarajevo was to have special status. On our.return to Sarajevo, when the plan had already taken shape, the Zagreb media broadcast the basic contents of the plan from Geneva and briefly mentioned that the plan derived from the wishes of the population and the proposals of the opposition parties within the Bosnian state delegation. At the time of the delegation's stay in Geneva, we initiated talks with key people in the principal European countries, the USA, and the UN headquarters in New York. Professor Filipovic and Miro Lazovic took part in several meetings held in European countries, mostly in Germany, by associations of refugees from Bosnia. Haris Silajdzic as Foreign Minister was meanwhile active in setting up meetings with the foreign ministers of the member countries of the 169 M. Pejanovic, THROUGH BOSNIAN EYES European Union and the Islamic Conference. Together, as a delegation, we visited Washington and New York in October, and Bonn in November. In New York we met with ambassadors of the countries of the Islamic Conference, and with the UN Secretary General, Bhoutros Ghali. In Washington, we had talks in the State Department, and with General Brendt Scowcroft, security adviser to President Bush. In Bonn there was a celebration in honor of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Germany and Bosnia, presided over by German Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel. The meeting with the ambassadors of the Islamic Conference members resulted from SilajdziC's presentation of the situation in Bosnia. The first reports had just arrived of the slaughter of Bosniaks in Kozarac and Prijedor, in camps such as Manjaca and Keraterm. SiIajdzic took the position that if the international community went on refusing to lift the arms embargo then in force against Bosnia, then it would be obliged to intervene in order to stop the war, and the persecution and slaughter of members of the Bosnlak nation. All ambassadors from Islamic countries received his statement favorably. Their predominant belief was that the war could and should be stopped by a peaceful, political solution, which would preserve the international and legal rights of the state of Bosnia. They showed a clear sense of responsibility for the Bosnian tragedy. However, they were realistic in their appraisal of the position of the leading world powers in the Security Council. Almost all ambassadors from the Islamic Conference countries placed the Bosnian question in the contextofthe relations between the world'sleaders. Itwas wellknown that the US at th.is point was not prepared to do anything that went against the wishes of its EUJ:'opean allies, especially England. We used our reception with Bhoutros-Ghali to try to convey the degree of the slaughter of Bosnia's people, and the danger of a humanitarian catastrophe. We presented our proposal for a peace plan, the proposal that subsequently emerged as the Vance-Owen Peace Plan in January 1993. After the talks in the UN headquarters in New York, there was a crowded press conference at which Silajdzic spoke first, followed by Professor Filipovic, then Miro Lazovic and myself. For journalists and media, our delegation's visit to New York was an appealing story, especially the multicultural nature of our delegation, and what Lazovic and I, as Serbs, had to say about Bosnia. 170 M. Pejanovic, THROUGH BOSNIAN EYES In Washington, our interview with the US President's National Security Advisor, General Brent...