Monitor: Sarajevo summit

Response to the meeting of world leaders to discuss the future of the Balkans

The New York Times

US

CLINTON'S MEETING with more than 30 other national leaders in Sarajevo offers a chance to get the postwar reconstruction of south-eastern Europe off to a sound start. So long as Milosevic remains in power, most international reconstruction aid will rightly bypass Serbia. The point is not to punish the Serbs but to hasten Mr Milosevic's downfall. Once he is gone, building a more democratic and prosperous Serbia will help cement regional stability. Clinton helped free Kosovo from Serbian rule and enable its refugees to return home. Now he must help consolidate a wider Balkan peace.

Khaleej Times

UAE

THE NATO leaders, led by Clinton, will be liberal with high-falutin' rhetoric about bringing this deprived and fractious corner of south-eastern Europe into the European mainstream. The EU's dilemma is that in the real world, it has set itself the impossible task of bringing about the development of the region while bypassing the dominant economy and people, Serbia and the Serbs. In the brave new world, neither Americans nor West Europeans are shy in calling for, and encouraging, the toppling of Mr Milosevic.

Providence Journal

Canada

THE SUMMIT is mostly a photo op for the benefit of the leaders junketing to Sarajevo to display their statesmanship to the folks back home. Pretty much everything done there could be done more easily, more cheaply and better on the phone or by dispatching a few foreign-aid officials. However, that would provide inadequate publicity.