Works on the Road

It's been a long time since a foreign visitor was received with such honors in Belgrade as Chinese Vice-Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Chien Chichen. For five full days, from Saturday to Wednesday, the regime papers sang praises of the "most populated country in the world", which with regard to the war had "an unbiased stand" and of the "traditional friendship" which linked the two countries. It was pointed out that this was "a visit of the highest rank in the past few years", and that it was strictly in the function of "China's support of Serbia's and Yugoslavia's peaceful policy", and underscored that "Beijing wished to develop cooperation with Yugoslavia".

That the hosts' expectations were in discord with the real goal of the visit became clear on Monday, during Chien Cichen's speech before the foreign policy committee of the Federal Assembly. This speech was planned to be carried live by RTS, but just ahead of the broadcast, Chien's prepared speech was received, and VREME's sources said that the program was hurriedly changed. This is hardly surprising, since to general consternation, it became clear from the speech that China expected Yugoslavia to recognize Bosnia and Croatia. At the end of his speech Chien said something about sanctions not solving anything, but he did not insist on their immediate lifting. "Sanctions must be explained", he said, and with regard to their lifting "we still have to see about that". Thanks to the creative efforts of local propaganda wizards, a scandal did not occur. In the state news agency's (Tanjug) report the speech was rearranged so that viewers and readers got the impression that sanctions must be lifted immediately and without delay. This is how Chien Chichen left Belgrade for an excursion to Montenegro, peacefully and with dignity, leaving Milosevic to deal with a new group of visitors -members of the Contact Group for Bosnia, who arrived in Belgrade on Tuesday.

If there was something to hope for ahead of Chien Chichen's visit, the Contact Group for Bosnia's visit left no dilemmas: representatives of the USA, Russia, United Kingdom, France and Germany arrived with their "final offer" which boils down to a partial lifting of the trade embargo against Serbia and Montenegro in exchange for the recognition of Bosnia, and nothing more. However, according to this proposal, oil imports will remain under sanctions, including foreign currency means on foreign bank accounts. The eventual, total removal of the noose which has been strangling Serbia's economy for the past three years, can be counted on only after a lasting peace in the territory of the former Yugoslavia becomes a reality, said the envoys.

"We didn't expect to achieve much progress, but I can tell you that Milosevic's reaction to our proposal wasn't particularly positive", confided a member of the Contact Group after several hours of talks with the Serbian President. The same source said that Milosevic had asked for the total lifting of sanctions and in return allowed for the possibility that he might recognize the phantom "Bosnia-Herzegovina union" sometime in the future, which exists at present only in the peace plan which Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic persistently refuses to sign. Milosevic didn't wish to talk about the recognition of the Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina. "I don't believe that we will be returning very soon, either as a group or individually", said a member of the Contact Croup on leaving Belgrade. The group then went to Zagreb, from where they expected to go on to Sarajevo. They were prevented in this by Bosnian Serb Army Commander Ratko Mladic's artillery, and a refusal to issue guarantees that their plane would not be shot at while landing at Sarajevo airport. Instead, Karadzic magnanimously offered them the use of the land route via Zvornik and Pale. His offer was turned down. The Bosnian Serbs' refusal to allow the Contact Group to visit Sarajevo is being interpreted with Karadzic's frustration because of the increased international isolation in which he is being held by Belgrade and the world community: his attempt at repeating Carter's visit was received coldly, and the "world's power wielders" didn't even include him in their plans during their visit to the former Yugoslavia.

Judging by everything, frustration is a general state of affairs. Three years have passed since the start of the war in Bosnia, and none have got what they expected: neither the warring sides, nor their sponsors, nor the peace mediators. At the press conference following talks with Milosevic, members of the Contact Group said that they "had paved the road to peace". Obviously, a lot of time will pass before this road is finally put into use.