After War's End, Efforts Have Largely Failed A Muslim woman sits on the doorstep of her bombed-out house near the Bosnian town of Bratunac. Many large aid donors, including the United States, the World Bank and the United Nations, say they will cut their assistance to Bosnia in the next year, in some cases by as much as a third. Members of NATO are weighing new cuts in its 20,000-member force after reducing strength from 32,000 at the outset.
Western officials concede that their governments bear much responsibility for the mess here.
Fearing casualties, Western powers were almost timid from the start. They left Bosnian wartime leaders and officials in place and chased war criminals only halfheartedly, fearing that an aggressive stance would bring armed counterattacks. It was five years ago this week that the country's ethnic factions, strong-armed by the United States and the European Union, signed a peace agreement after negotiations in Dayton, Ohio. The accord did stop the shooting in the grueling, three-sided war among Serbs, Muslims and Croats. But the follow-through, which the West had hoped would lead to sustainable peace and economic recovery, was not successfully carried out.