A BOSNIAN PEACE DEAL IN DAYTON IS "INCHES AWAY"

By Kevin Fedarko

AS BOSNIAN PEACE TALKS NEAR DAYTON ENTERED THEIR third week, much of the civility that had been evident in the summit's first days was gone. In its place, a kind of diplomatic cabin fever set in and provoked the delegates to carp about the character flaws of rival countries' Presidents: the crude belligerence of Croatia's Franjo Tudjman; the manipulative arrogance of Serbia's Slobodan Milosevic; the maddening--and seemingly willful--indecisiveness of Bosnia's Alija Izetbegovic. The resignation of Foreign Minister Muhamed Sacirbey suggested that tensions had grown within the Bosnian delegation. To escape the pressure, the Croatians flocked to the wide-screen TV in Packie's, a sports bar at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, where they could watch the Chicago Bulls and root for the star Croatian forward, Toni Kukoc. "They are all sick of the confinement and the artificiality of it," said an American official.

The setting was chosen, though, precisely to create such frustration, and out of it has come progress. Indeed, by week's end things had moved so far forward that all three Balkan Presidents were almost ready to take the step of actually signing a draft agreement. Almost. "We are inches away," said a frustrated U.S. official, just before the three Presidents, who had been repeatedly coaxed "to the edge''of the table, once again backed off. Their skittishness did not stem only from a concern that they may get a better deal; the "Rabin effect," as Dayton insiders call it, took hold, as the Presidents were worried that if they appeared to give away too much, they might be assassinated at home.

The Americans were exasperated with this final bucking and snorting because they believed the most intractable problems were all resolved. TIME has obtained documents that provide the details of the agreement the parties are near signing, even if they can't bring themselves to go ahead and do it. Here is a sketch:

Territory. The thorniest issue of all--and an area where remarkable progress has been made. The first break came when Tudjman and Milosevic agreed that control over Eastern Slavonia, the sliver of Croatia ruled by rebel Serbs since 1991, would revert to Zagreb's control in a year or, under certain conditions, two. That was followed by a compromise on the cornerstone issue: Sarajevo. It will remain, at least in name, an "undivided city'' (as the Muslims demand), but it will be partitioned into nine self-governing ethnic zones. Each zone can have its own official language, its own education system and even its own set of holidays. Citizens in each area will elect their own representatives to the City Council, and the council in turn will elect a mayor and three deputy mayors--a Bosnian, a Croat and a Serb--all of whom will exchange positions every year. Other major territorial obstacles have also been overcome. Milosevic has agreed to give up the safe haven of Gorazde, connected by a corridor to Sarajevo. In return, Bosnia will give up Srebrenica and Zepa, and permit a widening of the Posavina corridor, which links Serb-controlled Bosnian territories in the northwest and northeast with each other and with Serbia. These concessions have caused strong protests by Croats and Bosnians in Dayton and at home.

Constitution. The two halves of the new Bosnian nation--the Croat-Muslim federation and the Bosnian Serb "entity''--will be brought under the umbrella of a central government. The framework calls for a collective presidency, whose chairman will rotate among a Muslim, a Serb and a Croat; a constitutional court; and a multiethnic parliament.

Military. The peace accord will include complex rules to be enforced by an Implementation Force (I-FOR) of 60,000 NATO troops, some of whom will begin arriving in Bosnia within days of an agreement. I-FOR will be instructed to separate the warring armies in Bosnia along 4-km-wide cease-fire zones. Simultaneously, warring parties will begin to reveal to I-FOR the location of all minefields and booby traps, vacate territory and withdraw their heavy weapons to cantonment areas. Each side will furnish maps depicting the positions of all fortifications, ammunition dumps, command headquarters, communications networks, antiaircraft artillery and radars. Once in place, the I-FOR troops, unlike the hapless U.N. peacekeepers, will go where they please and have "the unimpeded right to observe, monitor and inspect'' whatever they like. All sides, moreover, are committed to working out military parity. To accomplish this, the U.S. will equip and train the weaker Bosnian army while the Serbs, in turn, will be required to trim back their forces.

War Criminals. For their role in atrocities against Muslim civilians that have already provoked indictments from the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and his military commander, Ratko Mladic, will be barred from participating in the Bosnian Serb government. Milosevic is still balking at Muslim demands that Karadzic and Mladic be extradited for trial in the Hague, despite a new round of genocide charges against the two last week for the alleged involvement in the July slaughter at Srebrenica. Nevertheless, the Serbian President has pledged to cooperate with the Tribunal.

U.S. sources say remaining issues could be resolved quickly once the Presidents steel themselves to initial an agreement. Of course, whether solutions crafted on paper can withstand the test of experience will not be answered in Dayton. But the test, at least, will finally begin.

--Reported by James L. Graff/Dayton and Douglas Waller/Washington

With reporting by JAMES L. GRAFF/DAYTON AND DOUGLAS WALLER/WASHINGTON