DESPITE their bombs and cruise missiles, NATO and the UN have falled, at this stage at least, to force the partition of Bosnia which has been the strategic alm of western policy.
The US brokered so-called peace talks have foundered into meaningless abstractions.
The NATO raids coincided with the Bosnian and Croat offensive in the north west and had the effect of matino : more successtul than it might otherwise have been.
Now with large tracts of liberated territory under its belt, the Bosnian government is unlikely to accept a 49 per cent-51 per cent division of the country as the starting point for any negotlations which are Ilkely to get anywhere.
They may play their current relative advantage to the full and take back as muca terrory as possibie before the Balkan winter brings operations to a halt.
Socialist Outlook supports the right of Bosnia to take back territory previously taken and ethnically cleansed by Serbian forces in violation of the national rights of the Bosnian people.
Bosnia is not "a warring faction" as claimed by much of the left in Britain, but a sovereign state lighting for the retention of a multi-ethnic society, despite pressures towards Istamisation within the The Greater Serbia project of Milosevic and Karadzic is for an "ethnically pure" i.e. ethnically cleansed state. Their ruthless pursuit of this was clear in the genocide around Srebrenica and Zepa and is becoming even clearer as mass graves are uncovered in the liberated territories.
It is this policy which has created the tens of thousands of ethnie Serd refugees who have fled in advance ear reprisals because of the policy proviousty carog our oy weir own Serbian leaders.
The Bosnian government however, has a big responsibility to create the conditions to encourage their retum, and for the retum home of all refugees in this war. This is a crucial issue for the Bosnian working class if a multi-ethnic society is to be established for the The tide has tured in the war, but it is far from over. Serblan forces still have the predominance of heavy weapons.
They will repair the damage to their military infrastructure, and be