MSNBC on the Internet reports today that with Bosnia-Herzegovina's first post-war elections scheduled for Saturday, a senior Clinton administration official says a second Dayton-style conference is being considered to keep the country's ethnic factions from lapsing again into civil war.
In a story by MSNBC reporter Michael Moran, assistant secretary of state for European affairs John Kornblum expressed confidence that the elections would help solidify the 10 months of peace which have prevailed in Bosnia. But he conceded ethnic tensions remain high and said a new Dayton-style conference is among the options the administration is considering.
"We are determined to do everything necessary to make this work," said Kornblum. "And organizing such a conference is one of the things we've thought about."
Kornblum, who helped engineer the first Dayton conference with former Bosnia envoy Richard Holbrooke last November, left Wednesday night to observe Saturday's elections. He said no final decision on the conference option would be made until after the vote.
At the White House, however, another Clinton official who deals with Bosnia said one option would be to reconvene the Croatian and Serbian presidents, along with newly elected Bosnian officials, at a previously planned meeting on Bosnia in London in November. The official, who requested anonymity, said Washington expected some resistance to the proposal from European governments already miffed at being sidelined at the first Dayton conference.
Meanwhile the event got sidelined by the urgent developments in Kosovo.
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