A Hint of Spring in The Balkan Tangle

In a negotiating flurry, the factions have produced a federation plan and an easing of the Sarajevo siege

Hundreds of pale, war-fatigued Sarajevans turned out to cheer when their familiar red streetcars went back into service. Their daily lives had long been framed by falling shells, and the friendly clanging of the trams sounded like a hint of peace, a bit of normality now that a NATO ultimatum had silenced the Serbian siege guns. The streetcars must have carried the same symbolism to Serb soldiers staring down from the hills around the city: last week a sniper fired into one of the jammed cars and wounded a passenger, and 12 people were killed elsewhere in the city.

By any...

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