From: trh@jack.sns.com (Al Trh)
Subject: Latest on Bosnia-Herzegovina 
Organization: Systems'n'Software
Date: Thu, 24 Dec 92 06:55:37 GMT

12/23 Record Aid Comes To Sarajevo 
 
   SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) -- A record amount of 
food has arrived on trucks and relief flights during an ebb 
in fighting, and hopes were raised Wednesday for a 
relatively peaceful Christmas in Bosnia. 
   But the mood was darker in Belgrade, where opponents of 
Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic are accusing the 
authoritarian former Communist of rigging last weekend's 
elections to remain in power. 
   In Brussels, the West moved closer to military 
intervention in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The United States and 
its NATO allies formally agreed to give the United Nations 
military plans for enforcing a no-fly zone over Bosnia that 
includes shooting down Serbian warplanes. 
   The U.N. secretary-general, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, had 
requested advice on how Western nations could enforce such a 
zone. 
   Yugoslav army Chief of Staff Gen. Zivota Panic reacted 
angrily, saying his forces were on alert and prepared for 
possible action if there were foreign military strikes 
against Serbs in Bosnia. 
   It was believed to be the first such open warning from a 
Serb commander, but many Serb threats have been made while 
the West considers its military options. 
   In Washington, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher 
said the United States was seeking a U.N. resolution 
authorizing "broad enforcement powers" that go into effect 
immediately. But he also seemed to acknowledge that an 
enforced ban on flights probably would not stop fighting on 
the ground. 
   In Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital besieged by Serb gunners 
for nine months, fighting was the quietest in days. That, 
and good weather conditions, allowed most of a scheduled 18 
relief flights to land, said U.N. officials. 
   A record 640 tons of aid arrived the previous day, mostly 
on 52 trucks that reached the city via difficult overland 
routes, said U.N. spokesman Peter Kessler. 
   Sarajevo has been without electricity, water or 
telephones for about three weeks, and the first starvation 
deaths have been reported. 
   In a glimmer of hope, the warring sides at Sarajevo's 
airport were expected to agree on allowing 500 "hardship 
cases" from each community -- Serbian, Croatian and Muslim -
- to leave the city on Thursday, said another U.N. 
spokesman, Maj. David Pindor Kohnk. 
   He said Serbian and Croatian military commanders had 
already agreed, but that Muslim representatives boycotted 
the last session of talks. 
   The vote count from Sunday's elections continued in 
Belgrade, the Serbian capital. With 75 percent of the 
ballots in, the state-run Tanjug news agency said Milosevic 
was leading with 55 percent and moderate Milan Panic, his 
main challenger, with 34 percent. 
   The opposition, which has been crying foul over the 
elections, produced its own figures: Milosevic at 49.2 
percent and Panic at 43.2 percent, with 20 percent of the 
ballots counted. Anything below 50 percent would force 
Milosevic into a runoff. 
   Milosevic is widely blamed for fomenting war that has 
killed tens of thousands in Croatia and Bosnia. 
 
 
12/23 UN Chief: Serbs Violating Ban 
 
   UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- The U.N. chief on Wednesday 
reported seven new Serb violations of the "no-fly zone" over 
Bosnia as the allies' Security Council talks on how to 
enforce the military flight ban bogged down. 
   In a letter sent to the Security Council, Secretary-
General Boutros Boutros-Ghali said allied AWACS observation 
planes spotted seven military flights from last Thursday 
through Saturday over Bosnia-Herzegovina. 
   The speed of two of the flights indicated they were 
warplanes, Boutros-Ghali said. 
   In addition, he said, U.N. military observers deployed at 
the Serb militia airfield at Banja Luka "are experiencing 
restrictions of their freedom of movement between the 
airfields" and their housing. 
   "Moreover, at the airfield in Cazin, the U.N. Military 
Observers are prevented from inspecting the cargo of 
incoming and outgoing flights," Boutros-Ghali told the 
council. 
   Cazin is reportedly held by Croat forces; however, all 
the reported violations of the military flight ban have been 
by Serb planes and helicopters. 
   In October, the Security Council banned military flights 
over Bosnia. Only the Serb militias operating from territory 
they have occupied in the north of Bosnia have been flying 
warplanes and helicopters over the country. 
   The United States, Britain and France are grappling with 
various military options to enforce a flight ban over 
Bosnia, including damaging airfields and shooting down Serb 
aircraft. 
   The actions would be aimed at halting the bloodshed in 
Bosnia. Serbia has been blamed for instigating the violence, 
which has left at least 17,000 dead since Bosnia seceded 
from Serb-dominated Yugoslavia in February. 
   But none of the options would significantly affect the 
ground war in Bosnia, where Serb forces have captured 70 
percent of the country. 
   The United States, which has no U.N. peacekeepers on the 
ground in Bosnia, is pushing for the most aggressive 
response. Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger made an 
unannounced trip to New York on Tuesday afternoon to press 
his views on Boutros-Ghali, and to discuss policy 
differences on Somalia. 
   But Britain and France, which have hundreds of 
peacekeepers on the ground in Bosnia, want a more cautious 
approach to enforcing the "no fly zone" over Bosnia. 
   France is wiling to intercept aircraft violating the ban, 
but not to attack targets on the ground. Britain is also 
taking a more guarded approach, despite the public agreement 
last weekend of President Bush and British Prime Minister 
John Major to push for a new Security Council resolution 
enforcing the ban. 
   Britain and France fear that attacks on Serb targets on 
the ground will provoke counterattacks by Serb forces on 
U.N. peacekeepers -- many of them French and British -- and 
humanitarian aid workers. 
   Diplomats said disagreements still exist over how long a 
graced period should be given the Serbs before enforcement 
begins, and what kind of military action would be authorized 
-- ranging from escorting planes out, shooting them down, 
even bombing Serb militia air bases. 
 
12/23 Bosnia Soldier: We Can Win 
 
   SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) -- Boris Krstanovic had 
left Yugoslavia 20 years ago to work at his brother's 
restaurant in Germany. He became "a full-time gambler, 
playing poker, visiting the casinos." 
   "It was a really good time -- I was loaded with money," 
he recalls. 
   The good times ended in March, when he returned to visit. 
"I had the feeling the war was going to start soon. When the 
first barricades went up, I organized my friends and 
neighbors," he said. 
   "The Bosnian army didn't exist. I was spending my time 
getting weapons, stopping Yugoslav army vehicles at night 
and stealing their weapons. We were really unprepared," he 
says. 
   After the war started, about 40 or 50 of us would go 
wherever there was fighting. We were improvising. I didn't 
know anything about weapons. I didn't know how to 
disassemble a gun -- only how to shoot it." 
   Nine months later, the 35-year-old Krstanovic is in the 
middle of the war that has tormented Europe. He is commander 
of a military intelligence brigade in the Bosnian army, a 
key figure in the defense of besieged Sarajevo. 
   "The Serbs are professional soldiers, but we are more 
willing to fight, and we're going to win. ... It's not the 
same to go into a fight for money as to defend your own 
people." 
   The Bosnians, by contrast, have much to fight for: "There 
were a few friends who died in my arms. They didn't ask to 
be saved -- they said, 'We're going to win."' 
   But once they win -- if they win -- Krstanovic has no 
intention of remaining. 
   "I'm not interested in staying here after the war. But 
I'm very proud that I'm here now. I couldn't live in Germany 
and see what's going on here on televison," he said. "I'm 
fighting for my town." 
 
 
12/23  SERB LEADER WARNS OFF WEST, BELGRADE VOTE ROW GROWS 
 
    By Maggie Fox 
    BELGRADE, Dec 23, Reuter - Bosnian Serb leader Radovan 
Karadzic on Wednesday told NATO members to remove their 
troops from United Nations forces in Bosnia just as NATO 
sent the U.N. its plans for enforcing a no-fly zone over the 
republic. 
    But the United States and its European allies remained 
split over how much firepower should be used. 
    An obviously upset Karadzic told a news conference that 
the U.N. troops should be replaced with soldiers from 
impartial countries and accused Western leaders who have 
been the toughest on the Serbs of themselves committing war 
crimes. 
    "The countries that belong to NATO already declared 
themselves as hostile to the Serbian people," Karadzic told 
a news conference, reading from a letter he sent to U.N. 
Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali. 
    NATO sources say the no-fly zone measures could include 
using Western warplanes for air strikes against Serb 
airfields if the U.N. decides such a move is needed. 
    "This is absolutely unnecessary since everyone knows 
that there were no combat flights. Why introduce more 
violence and more possibility for violence that may ruin 
everything what we have achieved so far," Karadzic said. 
    General Zivota Panic, the commander of the federal 
Yugoslav army, also warned against outside intervention. 
    "The Yugoslav army  has for a long time been in combat 
readiness, prepared to respond to eventual aggression by 
armed force...(whose) main goal would be the biological 
destruction of the Serbian people, regardless of where they 
live," he told Belgrade's Borba newspaper. 
    Although NATO sent its military plan for enforcing the 
no-fly zone to the U.N. at Boutros-Ghali's request, the 
United States and Europe could not agree on how far to go. 
    Diplomats said the United States wanted the right to 
bomb Serb-controlled airports. Britain and France, which 
have troops in Bosnia, wanted firepower limited to aircraft 
in the sky. 
    The Europeans wanted a deadline or warning period of 21 
to 30 days before the resolution came into force while 
Washington wanted less than a week, the diplomats said. 
    The row over Serbia's presidential and parliamentary 
elections also heated up, with the federal election watchdog 
alleging fraud and cheating in Sunday's elections. It 
recommended a full investigation. 
    Unofficial results from the Serbian statistics office 
showed incumbent president Slobodan Milosevic had won 56 per 
cent of the vote with 90 per cent of votes counted. 
Challenger Milan Panic had 34 per cent. 
    Milosevic's ex-communist Socialist Party of Serbia was 
set to control the Serbian parliament. With 77 per cent of 
the vote counted it had won 100 seats, its allied Serbian 
Radical Party had 74 seats, while the opposition Democratic 
Movement of Serbia (DEPOS) had 49 seats. 
    Five other parties had the remaining 27 seats. 
    DEPOS members met to decide whether to withdraw from 
parliament in protest over what they called rigging of the 
vote, but decided to wait until final results were in. 
    The official Yugoslav elections watchdog said all 
allegations of cheating would have to be checked. "The first 
early elections were held in an atmosphere of unequal media 
campaign and pronounced inter-party distrust," it said in a 
statement quoted by Tanjug news agency. 
    "It appears Serbia has missed its last opportunity to 
prove its credibility to the world and get back its place in 
the civilised community," DEPOS spokesman Vladeta Jankovic 
said.