“In growing numbers people have lost faith in the political process, and don’t see how it can help their threatened economic circumstances.”Since his election in 1978, Mr Bradley has been among his party’s brightest stars, combining the celebrity of a former New York Knicks hero with an ability to argue creatively on issues as varied as tax policy, the Soviet Union, and race, crime and inner cities. Even before he withdrew yesterday, his seat was considered vulnerable by Republicans and Democrats alike.Announcing his decision to friends and supporters in Newark, Mr Bradley said he would not leave public life entirely, but that 18 years in the Senate had been enough.”Politics on a basic level is broken,” he said. It also makes it even less likely that the Democrats can next year recapture control of the Senate, where the Republicans now have a 54- 46 majority.Caught between the strident oratory of dominant conservative Republicans and the increasing populism of his own Democrats, Mr Bradley’s voice has been largely drowned out on Capitol Hill. At least two others are expected to follow suit.Senator Bradley’s retirement will deprive the Senate of a very experienced and thoughtful voice, long considered to be of White House calibre. RUPERT CORNWELL

Washington
Proclaiming his disgust at a “broken” political system, one of the US Senate’s most respected members announced yesterday he will step down when his current term expires next year, and simultaneously ended speculation that he might challenge Bill Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1996.The retirement of Bill Bradley, a 52-year-old New Jersey Democrat, public policy expert, Rhodes scholar and former professional basketball star, accelerates the premature collapse of an entire generation of thoughtful, centrist Democrats, once regarded as the backbone of the party.His decision brings to six the number of incumbent Democrats who will step down next year. But the Serbs have recently come under the first military pressure in the war this year, losing most of their territory in Croatia and areas around the north-western Bosnian city of Bihac..

The Belgrade weekly Telegraf quoted Mr Karazdic as saying that a “new peace conference could be ready by the end of the month and the peace could be signed in September”.Bosnian Serbs have said they were unwilling to accept a plan drawn up by the five-nation Contact Group because it gives them only 49 per cent of the nation’s territory, much less than the 70 per cent they hold. In Sarajevo, Bosnia’s Foreign Minister, Muhamed Sacirbey, said he was reassured.
“Ambassador Holbrooke asked me to state to the press categorically that the US is not pressuring our government to give up Gorazde, and of course we have said we will not,” said Mr Sacirbey, who met Mr Holbrooke late on Tuesday in Split, Croatia.”What we will work on is how to make Gorazde more practical in terms of military, economic and political considerations,” he said.There had been reports that the plan would call for Gorazde to be swapped for Serb-held territory around the capital Sarajevo, but President Alija Izetbegovic said on Sunday that Bosnia would keep Gorazde even if it had to “wage war for 15 years” to do so.The peace plan under consideration has not been publicly detailed, but some reports say it would call for the division of Bosnia, with one portion confederating with Serbia and the other with Croatia.Meanwhile the Bosnian Serb leader, Radovan Karadzic, was said to be optimistic that a peace deal could be worked out soon and indicated a willingness to soften his own stance to achieve a settlement. Fears that the plan required Bosnia to give up the last of its three eastern enclaves were calmed by the US Assistant Secretary of State, Richard Holbrooke, after talks in the Croatian capital, Zagreb. Sarajevo (AFP) – Both the Bosnian government and the separatist Serb forces it is fighting showed interest in pursuing a US-backed peace plan yesterday. “We used to look at the mosques – there was one from the 14th century in Trebinje, it was very special,” she said.She did not think there were many inhabitants left – “They pushed out all the Muslims” – and she hopes the same fate will now befall the Serbs, and that Dubrovnik will ring again to the sound of foreign voices and Croatian cash registers.. “The only intention of the Croat side is to make Dubrovnik safe.

I think they have to do it,” said one.Last week ,the UN issued unconfirmed reports that civilians had been evacuated from Trebinje, the first hint of a Croatian offensive to come.Before the war, Barbara took tourists sightseeing in the town. The materiel never reached Dubrovnik, prompting speculation that the column turned east towards the Bosnian border near the town of Neum.UN officials in the region have no access to the border, but seem in no doubt of Zagreb’s plans. “I am not going to allow the people of Dubrovnik to spend their lives in cellars,” he told reporters.Huge military columns are heading south along the coast road from Split; on Tuesday we saw more than 50 trucks, at least 10 towing guns or heavy mortars. The war tourist must consult a large map just inside the western gateway which details each shrapnel mark and holed roof in Dubrovnik.The city has so far escaped the recent shelling – concentrated around the airport and border villages in the region – which has wounded more than a dozen people and sparked numerous brush fires on the scrubby mountains near the coast.The Serbs seem to be playing a dangerous game of “dare”, too circumspect to attack the city, but tempted to revenge itself for the loss of Krajina and towns in western Bosnia.The Croatian commander, General Zvonimir Cervenko, visited the front- lines on Tuesday to warn the Serbs against playing with fire. We have only tourism here, no factories.” If the Bosnian Serbs remained in Trebinje, she said, “We will die anyway.”Although the old town was bombarded by the Serbs during the war in 1991, there are few signs of damage: pockmarks in the walls of ancient buildings, mostly. Luckily I have relatives in Slovenia and they send me money to survive. “There are a couple of tourists – I met one this morning,” Barbara, a travel agent, said firmly.