ITALY: UNITED STATES MEDIATOR RICHARD HOLBROOKE ARRIVES IN ROME TO PREPARE FOR THE WEEKEND TALKS WITH THE BALKAN LEADERS

Record ID: 337860

  • Title: ITALY: UNITED STATES MEDIATOR RICHARD HOLBROOKE ARRIVES IN ROME TO PREPARE FOR THE WEEKEND TALKS WITH THE BALKAN LEADERS
  • Date: 16th February 1996
  • Summary: ROME, ITALY (FEBRUARY 16, 1996) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 1. SV FUMICINO AIRPORT 0.04 2. SV UNITED STATES (U.S.) NEGOTIATOR RICHARD HOLBROOKE WALKING ALONG CORRIDOR 0.14 3. SCU CUTAWAY SECURITY GUARD 0.16 4. SCU HOLBROOKE SPEAKING (ENGLISH) 1.47 5. SV HOLBROOKE LEAVES AIRPORT/ ENTERS CAR/ DRIVES AWAY 2.02 SEQUENCE 2 TRANSCRIPT: HOLBROOKE: "WE EXPECT ALL THREE PARTIES TO RECOMMIT THEMSELVES TO DAYTON (U.S.-BROKERED PEACE AGREEMENT) - NOT JUST IN THEORY. THANKS TO ITALIAN GOVERNMENT FOR ARRANGING AT SHORT NOTICE. EVENTS OF YESTERDAY SHOW THAT IFOR (IMPLEMENTATION FORCE) IS IMPLEMENTING AGREEMENT IN EVEN-HANDED MANNER. EARLY IN THE WEEK A SERB GENERAL AND COLONEL WERE MOVED TO THE HAGUE FOR FURTHER QUESTIONING. YESTERDAY IRANIAN AND OTHER PEOPLE VIOLATING ACCORDS WERE DETAINED -- SHOWING WE ENFORCE THE AGREEMENT IMPARTIALLY I'M NOT ASSESSING BLAME. OUR JOB IS TO MAKE IT WORK. THE STRAINS ON THE FEDERATION ARE VERY REAL AND WE LOOK FORWARDS TO MAKING SOME PROGRESS HERE." Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
  • Embargoed: 2nd March 1996 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: ROME, ITALY
  • City:
  • Country: Italy
  • Reuters ID: LVACF17H6KUS4DSSL3110EPTGP39
  • Story Text: United States (U.S.) mediator Richard Holbrooke arrived in Rome on Friday (February 16) and acknowledged that there were serious strains within Bosnia's Moslem-Croat federation.

    Holbrooke, who is in the Italian capital to lay the groundwork for weekend crisis talks with Balkan leaders added that IFOR (Implementation Force) had acted within its mandate when it captured a guerrilla training camp in Moslem-Croat federation territory in central Bosnia on Friday.

    IFOR troops took eight Bosnians and three men presumed to be Iranian into custody, NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) on Friday.

    On Saturday Holbrooke hopes to shore up the faltering Bosnia peace deal he painstakingly engineered.

    "It is touch and go now. The meeting is designed to jolt the Balkan leaders back into action," a Western diplomat said.

    Presidents Alija Izetbegovic of Bosnia, Franjo Tudjman of Croatia and Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia and other Western envoys will meet on Saturday for a mini-summit to head off a potential crisis in the Bosnia peace process.

    The two-day conference, hosted by Italy as current holder of the European Union presidency, is due to begin in the afternoon (1400 GMT).

    The Bosnia accord signed in Dayton, Ohio, last November has run into a raft of difficulties, including prisoner exchanges, Moslem-Croat conflict in the divided town of Mostar and the extradition of two Bosnian Serb army officers to the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague.


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