From: trh@jack.sns.com (Al Trh)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.turkish
Subject: Bosnian update
Date: 1 Jan 1993 08:41:10 -0600
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
Reply-To: Turkish Cultural Program List <TRKNWS-L%USCVM.BitNet@pucc.PRINCETON.EDU>
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu

Headlines:

12/30 PANIC REFUSES TO STEP DOWN, WAR CRISIS DEEPENS
12/30 BOUTROS-GHALI "NOT AGAINST ENFORCING BOSNIA NO-FLY ZONE."
12/30 1600  DANISH U.N. TROOPS ATTACKED IN BOSNIA
12/30 UN Appeals For Peace In Bosnia
12/30 Serbians Warn Of All Out War
12/30 Son Hunts Dad In Yugoslav War
12/30 THOUSANDS OF BOSNIAN ORPHANS SEEK ASYLUM
12/30 YUGOSLAV ARMY PREPARES TO FIGHT AGAINST FOREIGN ...
12/31 Sarajevans Jeer U.N. Chief
12/31 MITTERRAND SAYS FORCE NEEDED IN BOSNIA IF TALKS FAIL
12/31 U.N. CONFIRMS MOSLEM BREACH OF VITAL BOSNIAN ROAD

12/30 PANIC REFUSES TO STEP DOWN, WAR CRISIS DEEPENS

    By Maggie Fox
    BELGRADE, Dec 30, Reuter - The Yugoslav crisis deepened
on Wednesday when deposed Prime Minister Milan Panic refused
to step down and Yugoslavia's president claimed Moslem
forces had launched an offensive to relieve Serb-besieged
Sarajevo.
    The European Community's special envoy, Lord Owen, made
an unscheduled visit to Belgrade to try to speed progress on
redrawing the map of Bosnia, considered a vital first step
to negotiating peace for the former Yugoslav republic.
    Panic, who unsuccessfully challenged Serbian President
Slobodan Milosevic in elections earlier this month, said he
would not quit despite a parliamentary no-confidence vote.
    "The 1.5 million plus votes I won at the elections is a
great moral obligation and I will not run but instead stay
and unite the opposition to fight for democracy," he told a
news conference.
    The ultra-nationalist Radical Party, capitalising on
unexpected gains in the elections, successfully engineered
lightning no-confidence votes against Panic on Tuesday.
    It resolved to replace him immediately with his deputy,
Radoje Kontic. But, under the constitution, Panic's
government can remain in caretaker office until a fresh
cabinet is elected by the new parliament early in February.
    Yugoslav President Dobrica Cosic, who backed Panic
against Milosevic, was silent about the political moves but
said a long-expected Moslem offensive to relieve Sarajevo
had begun and could disrupt the search for a peace
settlement in Bosnia.
    "It is with deep regret that I have to inform you that
Moslem forces have...launched a general offensive from the
broader Sarajevo area and especially from Mount Igman," he
told U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali in a
letter.
    "Unless your intervention in the next few hours proves
to be fruitful, we shall be unable to assume any
responsibility for the inevitable consequences and this will
undoubtedly paralyse our joint endeavours aimed at ending
the war."
    But Reuter reporters in Sarajevo said there was no sign
that a Moslem offensive had begun, although heavy fighting
continued across Bosnia.
    Owen, on a brief visit to Belgrade to meet Milosevic and
Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic. said he was trying to
accelerate the process, started in Geneva last week, of re-
drawing the map of Bosnia.
    "We've come with the views of the Bosnian Croats and the
Bosnian Moslems and we now wanted to get in much more detail
the view of the Bosnian Serbs," he told a news conference.
    "The three of them are all still somewhere apart and
we've got to pull them together by Sunday, Saturday."
    Leaders of the three warring groups were due to meet in
Geneva on January 2 for their first face-to-face talks since
the war began.
    Karadzic told the same news conference that he thought
the three sides were closer to a peaceful solution than
before. But he again warned against foreign military
intervention to try to stop the fighting, something being
urged by the United States.
    "If we have (intervention)...then we are going to have
more and more cruelty and war and I think nobody responsible
would make such a move," he said."
    But the West toughened its line, with previously-
cautious Britain saying it was moving closer to the idea of
trying to force the Serbs to work for peace in Bosnia.
    Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd said "bloody-minded
cruelty" by Serbs and the risk of the conflict spreading had
raised the stakes, although he still distrusted armed
intervention as a means of forcing a settlement.
    "The Serbs should note a change," Hurd wrote in the
Daily Telegraph newspaper. "They have brought even those of
us who hold that view to the point where we can imagine
armed action against them to prevent a general Balkan war."

12/30  BOUTROS-GHALI ``NOT AGAINST ENFORCING BOSNIA ...

BOUTROS-GHALI "NOT AGAINST ENFORCING BOSNIA NO-FLY ZONE."
    PARIS, Dec 30, Reuter - U.N. Secretary-General Boutros
Boutros-Ghali is not against enforcing a no-fly zone over
Bosnia but has grave reservations about using force there in
any other way, the French Foreign Minister said on
Wednesday.
    Roland Dumas, who met Boutros-Ghali in Geneva earlier in
the day, told France 2 television: "If its a matter of
applying the resolution already adopted by the Security
Council and of giving it a binding force, the Secretary-
General is not against it."
    He said that Boutros-Ghali had grave reservations about
using military force in any other way in Bosnia.
    Dumas said that by "binding force" he meant military
action, prinicipally the interception of aircraft that broke
the no-fly ban over Bosnia.
    Dumas also said Russia would not block a new U.N.
Security Council resolution that would give the
international forces the power to use force against aircraft
violating the no-fly zone.
    He said that Russian Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev,
whom he met on Tuesday at Vienna airport, had agreed that
Russia would agree to the use of force in Bosnia, as long as
it was limited to enforcing the no-fly zone.
    The United States, Britain and France, which with Russia
and China have permanent seats on the Security Council, are
divided over how to use force to stop Serb aircraft flying
over Bosnia.
    The United States wants the resolution to leave all
decisions to the military while Britain and France want time
to prepare their troops, which are protecting humanitarian
aid work for the United Nations in Bosnia, for possible
relatiation.
    Dumas said military action was not incompatible with
peace talks in Geneva among the warring factions of the
former Yugoslavia.
    "At the same time as the international community is
showing its resolve and determination, the negotiations must
go on within the framework that has been chosen for this,
that is the conference run by Cyrus Vance and Lord Owen," he
said.
    He stressed that the U.N. no-fly resolution could not be
written off as a dead letter while Sarajevo was being
bombarded.
    Dumas said he suggested to Boutros-Ghali that the
Bosnian capital should be given what he called special
treatment. He gave no details.


12/30 1600  DANISH U.N. TROOPS ATTACKED IN BOSNIA

    SARAJEVO, Dec 30, Reuter - Danish troops serving with
the United Nations Protection Forces (UNPROFOR) in Sarajevo
were attacked with mortar bombs as they ferried troops out
of the city, a U.N. spokesman said on Wednesday.
    He said eight mortar bombs landed near a Danish armoured
personnel carrier on Tuesday, but said the closest one was
about 20 metres (yards) away and no one was hurt.
    Tanjug news agency reported from Belgrade that the
UNPROFOR forward headquarters came under mortar attack on
Tuesday night, but this could not be confirmed and U.N.
officials mentioned no such attack in briefings on
Wednesday.
    British U.N. troops came under fire twice last week in
central Bosnia and one officer was injured.
    "Despite a certain drop in combat activities in the
city, UNPROFOR members are exposed to great risk," Tanjug
quoted the spokesman as saying.
    Mortars were fired at the UNPROFOR headquarters twice
last week and some staff were temporarily moved from the
building.

12/30 UN Appeals For Peace In Bosnia

   GENEVA (AP) -- U.N. Secretary-General Boutros-Boutros
Ghali appealed Wednesday for "another chance for the peace
process," before resorting to any form of military
intervention in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
   He said the international community should await the
outcome of a meeting Saturday among all three warring
Bosnian factions before deciding on any additional sanctions
against the Serbs.
   He warned that if the U.N. Security Council followed the
wishes of the United States and took tough action against
Serb military flights, U.N. peacekeepers and humanitarian
workers might have to be withdrawn.
   At a news conference at the U.N. European headquarters,
Boutros-Ghali described his talks earlier this week with top
representatives from former Yugoslavia as constructive.
   He said international mediators Cyrus Vance and Lord Owen
were confident they had the basis of a political settlement
to the Bosnian crisis and had drawn up a compromise map on
dividing the war-shattered republic into autonomous
provinces.
   "We must do our best to maintain this new momentum which
has been created in favor of a peaceful solution," Boutros-
Ghali said.
   "Before having additional sanctions, let us try once more
the peaceful solution. Let us give another chance to the
peace process."
   He said it would be for the U.N. Security Council to
decide what action to take if the Saturday meeting failed.
The meeting will be the first time political and military
leaders of the Bosnian government, Croats and Serbs have met
since the start of the war that has claimed more than 17,000
lives and driven more than 1 million people from their
homes.
   The Security Council is expected to decide later this
week on how to enforce its no-fly zone over Bosnia. The
United States is pressing for tough action against Serb
violations of the ban. Britain, which has until now been
cautious because of the threat of Serb reprisals against its
troops on the ground, on Wednesday indicated it was prepared
to take a stronger stance against the Serbs.
   Boutros-Ghali said there were several ways of
implementing the no-fly ban.
   "If certain modalities are related to real coercive
actions, then the peacekeeping forces and the
representatives of the humanitarian organizations will be
endangered," he said.


12/30 Serbians Warn Of All Out War

   BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) -- Yugoslav leaders warned
Wednesday that Western military intervention in Bosnia would
lead to all-out war. But even Britain's foreign secretary, a
staunch opponent of military action, was becoming hawkish.
   U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali appealed for
any decision on military force to wait until a meeting
Saturday in Geneva between the three warring factions:
ethnic Serbs, Croats and Muslims.
   Lt. Gen. Satish Nambiar of India, commander of 23,000
U.N. peacekeepers across Yugoslavia and its former
republics, also argued for further negotiations. But he
acknowledged international patience was growing thin.
   "There is a tolerance level which will break, and it is
quite close to the breaking point," he told The Associated
Press.
   Yugoslav President Dobrica Cosic claimed Serbs besieging
Sarajevo were being hit by a major assault. U.N. officials
have speculated that up to 10,000 government troops were
ready to attack Serb rebels.
   But the Bosnian capital remained relatively calm
Wednesday, with no sign that its Muslim-led defenders had
launched a major offensive.
   Sarajevo residents suffered nonetheless. U.N. officials
said at least eight people had died between Christmas and
Dec. 28 at a nursing home -- victims of biting cold and
sniper fire.
   Temperatures remained below freezing in the city, which
has been without electricity and water for three weeks.
Residents have resorted to chopping down trees for firewood.
   In Belgrade, the Yugoslav army chief of staff, Gen.
Zivota Panic predicted Western military intervention would
only "spread the war." He said his army was preparing to
repel any foreign military intervention.
   Serbian officials rebuffed new attempts by Lord Owen, the
European Community special mediator, to bring a negotiated
settlement to the war.
   He presented Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic with a
proposal on keeping Bosnia unified, though decentralized.
But Karadzic turned it down, asking: "Why did we have a war
if Bosnia should stay unified?" Belgrade radio reported.
   War started in Bosnia after the Muslim and Croat majority
voted for independence from Yugoslavia in February. The Serb
minority rebelled and has captured two-thirds of Bosnia's
territory, initially with the backing of the Serbian-
dominated federal army.
   At least 17,000 people have been killed in Bosnia, and
millions have been made homeless.
   The failure of peace efforts has caused even staunch
opponents of foreign intervention to rethink their options.
   Britain's foreign secretary, Douglas Hurd, told The Daily
Telegraph newspaper he could envision armed action against
the Serbs. He still dismissed bombing of Serb targets.
   Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic's hand to enlarge
Serbia by uniting it with Serb-held regions of other
republics was strengthened by a vote Tuesday in federal
parliament to oust Yugoslav Premier Milan Panic, the Serb-
born American who has condemned the government hard-line
policies.

12/30 Son Hunts Dad In Yugoslav War

   SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) -- Samir Petrovic has
something very dark indeed in mind when he aims his bazooka
each day: He wants to kill his father.
   Samir, fighting on the Bosnian government side, is in an
anti-tank squadron in the suburb of Stup, where his father
Ljubomir Petrovic commands a tank battalion for the Serbs.
   "Chances are pretty good. I think about it a lot. It
inspires me to fight," the 19-year-old said in an interview
at home, surrounded by his mother's Muslim relatives. He
interrogates captured Serbs for news of his father.
   The war that broke out nine months ago has destroyed much
of Sarajevo and frayed the interwoven threads of its
multiethnic culture. Some Serbs have left to fight with the
Serb nationalists challenging the Bosnian government.
Families like the Petrovics have split.
   Communitites of Muslims, Croats and Serbs remaining in
the besieged capital still try to respect the tradition of
easy mingling among the 400,000 inhabitants.
   But it is difficult. In the 60,000-strong Serb community,
some wonder how long tolerance can last if refugees from
districts where Serbs plundered and raped turn to revenge.
   "How can you explain to someone that they have to follow
the old rules when blood falls in their eyes?" said Veljko
Droca, a 61-year-old retired sociology professor who is a
Serb.
   Serbs scurry through the one functioning Orthodox church
just long enough to light candles in front of the icons.
   "They just come in and run away again. They are afraid,"
said the priest, Avhkum Rosic.
   The rumor that the Serbs planned to rename the city after
Gavrilo Princip, a nationalist who sparked World War I in
1914 by assassinating Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand, did
not help matters.
   The city fathers moved to protect a piece of history by
cutting out his footprints and removing a plaque on the wall
where the shooting occurred.
   Aside from one prominent Serb politician abducted and
murdered early in the conflict, however, the Serbs said the
only abuse they suffer is verbal. They dismiss as ludicrous
the claims by the Serb army that 20,000 of their number have
been slaughtered.
   The Bosnian government says it is committed to protecting
them.
   "The first time you see a Serb slaughtered here, come and
tell me and I will kill myself," said Gen. Stjepan Siber, a
Croat and deputy commander of the Bosnian military.
   But Muslims often grumble that the Serb community has
been slow to condemn Sarajevo's destruction, refusing to
choose sides to save their necks if the city fell.
   Over 300 Serb intellectuals tried to reverse that with a
petition condemning the siege.


12/30 THOUSANDS OF BOSNIAN ORPHANS SEEK ASYLUM

    By Stephen Hughes
    RABAT, Dec 30, Reuter - Libya is taking care of 2,000
Moslem orphans from war-torn Bosnia and up to 100,000 more
are in desperate need of care, Dr Izet Aganovic, President
of the Bosnian Red Crescent, said on Wednesday.
    He told a news conference Libya was the first Arab state
to take in some of the orphans. Among Moslem countries he
said several hundred had been adopted by Pakistan and
Malaysia.
    Another 100,000 children were awaiting evacuation from
the beseiged Bosnian capital Sarajevo. "Most of them are
orphans, or they have lost a father or a mother," he said.
    "Except for Germany and Austria, no significant aid has
been sent to us by the European Community. We have been
obliged to turn to the Gulf States and Islamic countries,"
he said.
    He said Saudi Arabians had contributed $100 million in
relief aid, and he had received contributions from groups he
conferred with in Britain, Germany, Malaysia, Indonesia and
the United States.
    "We don't expect anything from the new American
administration (of President-elect Bill Clinton)," Aganovic
said.
    "They will send us some old clothes to protect us from
the cold, but not from the Serb shelling....In any case, we
have no oil, so we cannot expect any American intervention,"
he added bitterly.
    Aganovic painted a grim picture of the situation in
Bosnia. He said at least 150,000 people had been killed,
many of them women and children, and 30,000 people were
missing.
    More than 40 local journalists had been killed by the
Serbs "for reporting the truth about the genocide of which
Moslems are the victims," Aganovic added.
    He accused the Serbs of raping 80,000 young women or
mothers and said a third of them were pregnant as a result.
    He said 500 imams had been assassinated and 600 mosques
destroyed or damaged. At present he said there were two
million homeless people and four million in need of basic
foods.

12/30 YUGOSLAV ARMY PREPARES TO FIGHT AGAINST FOREIGN ...

BELGRADE, YUGOSLAVIA (DEC. 30) UPI - The chief of the
Yugoslav army Wednesday warned that the Serb-dominated army
was prepared to oppose foreign military intervention against
Serbian forces that have overrun large areas of newly
independent Bosnia-Herzegovina.
   Col. Gen. Zivota Panic, the highest ranking Yugoslav
military officer, also said that the army would return to
neighboring Croatia if it tries to reclaim the self-declared
Serbian state of Krajina, proclaimed on the 35 percent of
the former Yugoslav republic siezed last year by Serbian
forces.
   "We will definitely not allow genocide and the
destruction of the Serbian people in Bosnia-Herzegovina and
Krajina. This is the most important thing at this moment,"
said a statement issued at a news conference by Panic.
   Panic's comments came amid increased calls for foreign
intervention to halt the civil war in Bosnia-Herzegovina
that erupted in late March when Serbian forces set out to
rip a self-declared state from the former Yugoslav republic
of Muslim Slavs, Christian Orthodox Serbs and Roman Catholic
Croats.
   "The war would only spread in the event of (foreign)
military intervention. Intervention would be a mistake,"
said Panic.
   It was the second time this month that Panic has said
that the army of the rump Yugoslav union of Serbia and
Montenegro would oppose foreign military intervention in
Bosnia-Herzegovina. But, his warning about Croatia was the
first of its kind.
   Panic said that he viewed threats of foreign military
intervention as part of a plan by "some Western nations to
extend their dominion over the territories of former
Yugoslavia."
   "This is the final phase ... of the breaking up of the
territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia,
said Panic.
   Western diplomats viewed his comments as aimed at
exploiting differences within the international community
over policy toward former Yugoslavia and  the wisdom of
intervention in mountainous Bosnia-Herzegovina, which some
states fear would bog Western forces down in a long and
costly guerrilla war.
   On another issue, Panic critiziced the West for accusing
the Yugoslav army of "occupying" Serbia's southern Kosovo
Province, where the ethnic Albanian majority is demanding
independence, and Muslim Slav-dominated region of Sandzak.
Large contingents of troops and police have been deployed in
both areas.
   "This is a direct attack on the sovereignty of this
country," said Panic, asserting that the Yugoslav army would
be prepared to respond to "any eventual aggression."
   Panic was referring to a letter sent earlier this month
by President Bush to him and communist President Slobodan
Milosevic of Serbia in which the American leader warned that
any attempt to ignite an ethnic conflict in Kosovo would
prompt foreign military intervention.
   Western governments fear that a conflict in Kosovo could
spread to the ethnic Albanian community in neighboring
Macedonia, and then drag in Albania, Greece and Turkey.
   Panic, no relation of ousted prime minister Milan Panic,
stressed that the Yugoslav army is in a state of high alert.
   He added that the West has "overlooked the determination"
of Serbs and Montenegrins, who now constitute the new
Yugoslav union, to defend their homeland "as in past wars."
   Panic said that the army is currently in the process of
reorganizing amid the chaos caused by the breakup of former
Yugoslavia and the conflicts in Bosnia-Herzegovina and
Croatia.
   "In comparison to former Yugoslavia, Serbia and
Montenegro are able to produce 48 percent of the country's
military equipment needs," said Panic.
   His statement also revealed new figures for Yugoslavia's
standing army, which it said was currently at 600,000 men.
The force could be expanded to about 2 million soldiers in
the event of full-scale mobilization.

12/31 Sarajevans Jeer U.N. Chief

   SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) -- U.N. Secretary-
General Boutros Boutros-Ghali appealed to people in this
besieged city Thursday to give peace talks more time to
work. But enraged, war-weary residents booed him and spat on
his car.
   There is tremendous disillusionment with U.N. efforts to
end the 9-month-old war, which has killed more than 17,000
people and left more than 1 million homeless.
   Many residents of Sarajevo are outraged by Boutros-
Ghali's opposition to Western moves toward military
intervention in Bosnia. On Wednesday, he sent a letter to
the U.N. Security Council expressing his "grave concern over
the growing momentum for military action in the area."
   Western nations on the council, led by the United States,
are moving toward using warplanes to make Serbs honor a U.N.
resolution barring them from military flights over Bosnia.
   Yugoslav leaders say that Western military intervention
would only spark more bloodshed.
   In an indirect snub, Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic
was not in Sarajevo to meet the secretary-general.
   "We don't need him," said Suada Sbegovic, a bystander
outside the Bosnian presidency, where Boutros-Ghali was
meeting government officials. "What we need is
intervention."
   A crowd of about 50 people outside the presidency
shouted: "Ghali fascist! Ghali Hitler!"
   Others ignored the high-ranking visitor. Busy trying to
survive in an ice-bound city without water or electricity
for more than three weeks, they were fetching water in
plastic cans or pushing firewood on rickety carts.
   U.N. officials say some residents are dying from the
cold.
   As reporters looked on, the deputy president of Bosnia's
Muslim-led government, Ejup Ganic, told Boutros-Ghali that
U.N. help had come "much too late."
   "We share your frustration. We share the horror that has
happened to your country," Boutros-Ghali responded.
   "We must continue to negotiate," he said. "Only through
negotiations, will we be able to find a solution."
   The war started in Bosnia after the Muslim and Croat
majority voted for independence from Yugoslavia in February.
The Serb minority rebelled and has captured two-thirds of
Bosnia's territory, initially with the backing of the
Serbian-dominated federal army.
   Before Boutros-Ghali's plane touched down, a group of
Sarajevo intellectuals issued a bitter "welcoming"
statement."
   "We wish you a Happy New Year and to see you in better
times," said the statement. "Please stop defending us your
way. We are getting exterminated." Some of his statements
were greeted with incredulity.
   "You have a situation here that is better than in 10
other places in the world," Boutros-Ghali told a radio
reporter. And he told another local journalist that "deaths
in other countries are more serious."
   The protesters jeered and spat at Boutros-Ghali's white
U.N. car as it sped away on a tour, passing Sarajevo's once-
prized national library and stopping at a badly damaged
hospital.
   At the hospital, Boutros-Ghali was shown terrible damage
caused by an exploding artillery round.
   'Yes," said Boutros-Ghali, "but morale seems very high."


12/31 MITTERRAND SAYS FORCE NEEDED IN BOSNIA IF TALKS FAIL

    PARIS, Dec 31, Reuter - French President Francois
Mitterrand says the United Nations, barring a peaceful
settlement in former Yugoslavia, must allow the use of force
in Bosnia.
    Force would be necessary to enforce a no-fly zone over
Bosnia and clear routes to prison camps, Sarajevo and other
besieged Bosnian towns, the French leader said in a
televised New Year message broadcast on Thursday.
    "I wish current negotiations in Geneva to succeed as
soon as possible. If not, I shall expect the Security
Council to order to clear Bosnian airspace as well as routes
to prison camps and such martyr cities as Sarajevo," he
said.
    Mitterrand called on the U.N. Security Council to boost
peace-keeping forces in Kosovo and Macedonia to prevent the
war in former Yugoslavia from engulfing the Balkans.
    "It is up to Serb authorities to understand that they
must stop," he said.
    As calls for armed intervention mounted at home,
Mitterrand said France had sent 5,000 peace-keepers to
former Yugoslavia. Nine had been killed. Paris would not go
any further without a U.N. mandate backed by France's
Western allies.
    "Can we do more ?" he asked. "I shall not accept it
unless the United Nations take responsibility and Americans
and Europeans commit themselves with us.
    Disagreement between the United States and its European
allies on how force should be used in Bosnia has so far
prevented authorising enforcement of an air exclusion zone.
    The presidents of Federal Yugoslavia, Croatia and Bosnia
as well as leaders of Bosnia's Serbs and Croats are to meet
on Saturday in Geneva in a new round of the international
peace talks sponsored by the U.N. and the European
Community.
    Mitterrand made no mention of his earlier proposal to
turn the besieged Bosnian capital into a neutral city.
    Foreign Minister Roland Dumas said earlier in the day
that U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali had agreed
to study how to save Sarajevo residents from a disastrous
winter of fighting and deprivation.
    The leader of the French Roman Catholic Church and major
French-based charities have called recently for military
force to ease the plight of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
    An opinion poll published on Thursday in the newspaper
Le Parisien Libere said 70 per cent of the French approved
armed intervention to enforce a ceasefire in former
Yugoslavia and 52 per cent backed force to impose a
solution.
    Mitterrand paid tribute to Washington and Moscow for
agreeing to wide-ranging nuclear arms cuts in the START 2
treaty, and to EC countries for lifting border controls in
the single market by January 1.
    He said U.S. economic recovery and a possible drop in
German interest rates could help Europe revive growth, boost
investment and cut unemployment through projects agreed at
the EC summit in Edinburgh earlier this month.


12/31 U.N. CONFIRMS MOSLEM BREACH OF VITAL BOSNIAN ROAD

    By Giles Elgood
    VITEZ, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Dec 31, Reuter - Moslem
forces have breached a vital supply route across northern
Bosnia that the Serbs use to reach territory they control in
the west and in Serb-held Croatia, United Nations sources
said on Thursday.
    They also said Croat troops had been deployed to help
their allies outside the Bosnian capital Sarajevo. The U.N.
has been warning of a Moslem build-up outside the city for
several days.
    But the Serb forces deny the route has been cut and have
issued reports advising caution on the road. Bus services in
Belgrade reported that they were running daily from the
Yugoslav capital to Banja Luka on the road.
    The northern supply route stretches across Bosnia from
Bijeljina, through Brcko and on to Banja Luka. The worst
fighting has been about halfway along the road, especially
around the Moslem-held town of Gradacac.
    The U.N. sources said the breaks in the route were
causing major problems to the Serbs and that they were
forced to use helicopters to resupply their forces. This
would be a violation of the U.N.'s no-fly zone over Bosnia.
    "The only reports we had are in the Gradacac area," said
Major Martin Waters, liaison officer for British U.N. forces
in Vitez, central Bosnia.
    Another officer said the Serbs appeared to be
overstretched. He said the Bosnian army had taken 20 km (13
miles) of Serb frontlines towards the road between Olovo and
Zavidovici, which connects to the northern corridor.
    Moslem forces were massed on a strategic hill
overlooking Sarajevo, although negotiators say they have a
promise from Moslem leaders not to launch an attack to free
the city from its Serb siege before crucial weekend peace
talks in Geneva.
    Bosnian Moslems, Croats and Serbs are due to sit down
together for the first time at the meeting, which begins on
Saturday.
    U.N. sources said two Croatian Defence Council (HVO)
brigades had moved into position outside Sarajevo. They
could give no indication of the brigades' strength or when
they could be planning an assault.
    "Two HVO brigades have moved into the area," said one
U.N. officer. "They are probably going to punch through and
form a resupply corridor to Sarajevo."
    He said such a corridor could be useful to bring aid
into the city. U.N. officers last week indicated it could be
helpful if the Moslems opened the northern Bosnian supply
route as well.
    A British army patrol of armoured vehicles travelling
along a road in eastern Bosnia known to British troops as
"bomb alley," was attacked on Wednesday when two mortar
bombs landed near the convoy, U.N. officials said.
    It was the fourth incident involving U.N. convoys. A
Danish convoy was attacked on Wednesday and two separate
British patrols last week. One officer was injured in one
attack. The U.N. has complained to Serb commanders.
Newsgroups: soc.culture.turkish,talk.politics.mideast,soc.culture.greek,soc.history