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The Bosnian Serbs wanted to just say no. They did not intend to accept the U.S-European proposal for partitioning war-torn Bosnia and Herzegovina. At the same time they preferred not to proclaim themselves the main obstacle to peace. So after two days of secret discussions last week, the Serbs' self- appointed legislature in Pale sent a written reply, coyly sealed in a pink envelope, to the international mediators in Geneva. It turned out to be a no masquerading as a maybe: without giving a straight answer, the Serbs called for "further work" on the proposed map and other issues.

The map was the heart of a last-ditch peace effort offered by the so-called contact group of the U.S., Russia, Britain, France and Germany. Under their rules, hedging was unacceptable, and the two sides were expected to take the plan or leave it. When the proposal was presented to the Muslim-led Bosnian government and the Serb rebels on July 6, it came with an ultimatum: if they turned it down, they would be punished. The Bosnian government signed on without conditions. But the Serbs, who have never met a peace plan they liked, coolly called the bluff. Foreign ministers of the five would-be peacemaker states are to meet in Geneva on July 30 and try again to muster the political will to punish Serb defiance.

Not that the Serbs' rejection was a great surprise, since there was plenty in the plan for everyone to dislike. The Clinton Administration approved a partition that would award the Serbs title to towns they had purged of Muslims with violent "ethnic cleansing" -- something Washington had said it would never accept. The Bosnian government and its Croat-federation partners thought the 51% of the territory they would receive was too little. They may have said yes only because they expected the Serbs to say no.

For their part, the Bosnian Serbs also viewed the 49% share they were allotted as too small; their troops have already captured 72% of the country. Last week they presented additional demands, including Serbian access to the Adriatic Sea, a share in governing the capital city, Sarajevo, an end to economic sanctions against Serbia proper and certain "constitutional arrangements." The last is a veiled reference to the Bosnian Serbs' call for recognition as a separate state free to merge one day into a Greater Serbia. For the Bosnian government, on the other hand, a legal unity of the state is essential.

In hopes of putting pressure on the Serbs, the contact group had floated hints of the punishment they would inflict on the naysayers. First, they warned, they could tighten economic sanctions on Serbia, the Bosnian Serbs' backers and suppliers. Second, they might expand and police the security zones around six mostly Muslim areas. Finally, as a last resort, the Bosnian government might be exempted from the international arms embargo that affects all of the former Yugoslavia but hurts the Muslims and Croats most.