From: draskovi@usc.edu (Zoran Draskovic)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.europe
Subject: San Francisco Chronicle, Dec. 26, 1992.
Date: 1 Jan 1993 21:39:54 -0800
Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: aludra.usc.edu

	San Francisco Chronicle, December 26,1992.
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U. N. LEADERS CALLED TARGETS

Bosnia shelling linked to general's opposition to intervention

by John Burns	New York Times		

Sarajevo

	The French commander of the international peace force here said
yesterday that Bosnian government troops were trying to kill the two
top-ranking U.N. officers in the former Yugoslav republics because the
generals strongly oppose Western intervention.

	The commander, Major General Phillipe Morillion, said he saw a
link between mortar attacks Thursday and yesterday on the U.N. head-
quarters and the Security Council debate whether to authorize the
United States and European nations to enforce a ban on military
flights over Bosnia.

	Such enforcement would represent the first Western tactical
military intervention in the Bosnian war, and approval of a resolution
has been delayed by differences over the form that any Western military
action should take.

	As part of a tougher policy prompted by growing evidence of
Serbian atrocities, Washington is seeking authorization to shoot down
Serbian military aircraft. But Britain and France, which provide about
half the 7500 member U.N. force in the area, are concerned that such
attacks could lead to retaliation on the ground.

	These doubts have been reinforced by positions taken by the
co-chairmen of a joint United Nations-European Community peace
conference on the Yugoslav region, former Secretary of State Cyrus
Vance and Lord Owen of Britain. They have said they want more time
for negotiations in Geneva with the Serbian leaders.

	Strong opposition to battlefield intervention has also been
expressed by the U.N. command in Sarajevo, a point made strongly by
Morillion yesterday at a news conference called to mark the visit of
General Satish Nambiar of India, overall commander of the 21500 
member U.N. force in the Balkan republics.

	The generals said they have argued within the U.N. system
against any form of military intervention on the ground that it could
bog down the West in a long war with high casualties.

	Nambiar said that advocates of intervention should recognize
that it would no longer be possible to escort relief supplies to
Sarajevo once Western military action was taken against the Serbs.

	Morillion described the Bosnians' mortar blasts as a "deliberate
attack" aimed at killing Nambiar and himself. "They know that Nambiar
and I have been resisting military intervention," he said.

	Morillion said there was "no doubt" that the mortars that
struck outside the U.N. villa had been fired from an area of Sarajevo
that is under the control of the Bosnian defenders.

	He said U.N. observers had confirmed that the mortars were
fired from positions near the Miljacka River in the city center, close
to Grbavica, a district controlled by Serbian forces. "They are not
stupid, these people," Morillion said, adding that the firing 
positions were taken so that the Serbs would be blamed.

	He said the more dangerous of the two attacks, which occurred
at breakfast time Thursday, had forced him and Nambiar to take shelter
in a sandbagged storage room. One soldier from Britain was lightly
wounded. But Morillion said the three 82 mm mortar rounds, two of
which struck within 20 feet of the villa, could have had far worse
consequences.

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Xref: sparky soc.culture.europe:10772 talk.politics.soviet:9966