New Foes in Bosnia

OF ALL THE THINGS BOSNIA NEEDED, A SECOND THEater of war was perhaps the last. But in central Bosnia, Croats and Muslims began fighting along what was supposed to be the boundary line between two provinces under the moribund Vance-Owen peace plan. Croats subjected Muslims to ethnic cleansing, systematic rape and cold-blooded murder, just as the Serbs to the north and east; there were reports of Muslim atrocities as well. However, late Saturday the two sides signed an agreement in Zagreb.

In the main theater, quiet, of a sort, came to the Serb-besieged town of Srebrenica under a United Nations-arranged truce. Still, pressure mounted in the U.S. for intervention: a dozen Balkan desk officers in the State Department urged air strikes, unilateral if necessary, to protect besieged cities. President Clinton at his news conference ruled nothing out but again disavowed any unilateral action. The most the Administration is likely to do soon is to press for a lifting of the embargo against arms shipments to Bosnia. Supplying Bosnia with heavy weapons -- or letting others do it -- is the step least likely to drag U.S. forces into the Balkan charnel house. But that might well escalate the violence, and the killing, without necessarily changing the outcome. (See related story on page 48.)