Bosnian Serbs Refuse Compromise Peace Plan

PEACE talks to resolve the 9-month-old war in Bosnia-Herzegovina broke down Jan. 12 after Bosnia's Serb leader, Radovan Karadzic, refused to accept a compromise plan, European Community envoy Lord David Owen said.

Mr. Karadzic "said no" to a plan that would have created a new constitution for the besieged republic, co-mediator Cyrus Vance told a news conference.

Hard-line Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, considered a key in the peace talks, and Dobrica Cosic, the federal president of Yugoslavia, accepted the compromises as "reasonable," Mr. Vance said.

Vance said he would report the deadlock to UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali. Mr. Vance and Lord Owen have proposed a peace package that would include dividing Bosnia into 10 provinces with very wide powers, a permanent cease-fire, and troop pullback. Any amendments to the constitutional plan would need approval from Bosnia's Muslim-led government and its Croats, both of whom have approved the proposed principles, but not a map of the provincial borders.