Business and traffic are starting to flow between Muslim and Serbian enclaves. Even attitudes appear to be changing. During a telephone call-in poll on a national TV station, Croatian, Muslim, and Serbian callers voted 18,100 to 450 in favor of having the international community impose solutions to disputes the three sides cannot resolve on their own. But as soon as one problem is resolved, another seems to take its place. Lately, Western officials have been frustrated by the failure of Serbian, Muslim, and Croatian leaders to agree on a common vehicle license plate, one that does not denote ethnicity.
Progress is even more elusive on bigger issues like bringing war criminals to justice.
In two years, the international war-crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia has convicted only two people. NATO troops did arrest two suspects in a mid-December raid and vowed to catch more. Clinton's decision to keep troops on duty indefinitely is welcomed by some officials as a sign that America is determined to keep Bosnia from slipping back into chaos. The setting of deadlines for getting out, one U.S. Army field commander in Europe says, was counterproductive. Clinton still must sell his plan to Congress.