From: trh@jack.sns.com (Al Trh)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.turkish
Subject: News--Bosnia
Date: 29 Dec 1992 13:42:36 -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

12/28 U.N. CHIEF SUGGESTS 10,000 TROOPS FOR BOSNIA BORDERS

    By Evelyn Leopold
    UNITED NATIONS, Dec 28, Reuter - Secretary-General
Boutros Boutros-Ghali proposed another 10,000 troops to stop
weapons and fighters from infiltrating into Bosnia-
Herzegovina but questioned whether member states could come
up with adequate resources, according to documents
distributed on Monday.
    In a report to the Security Council the U.N. chief
submitted proposals to station monitors along Bosnia's
frontiers as requested in a November council resolution and
at a conference on Yugoslavia in London last August.
     But he appeared dubious about the means to mount such a
large operation. He indicated the Security Council might be
better off posting fewer U.N. monitors on the Yugoslav and
Croatian side of the border in cooperation with authorities
there rather than do the job alone in Bosnia.
    To properly carry out the council's recommendation,
Boutros-Ghali said 1,100 km (680 miles) of rugged territory
in Bosnia-Herzegovina would have to be monitored including
48 crossings from the Yugoslav republics of Serbia and
Montenegro and 75 along the Croatian border.
    The U.N. Protection Force (UNPROFOR) in the former
Yugoslavia already has about 23,000 troops and civilians,
with about 7,500 troops in Bosnia and the remainder in
Croatia.
    He said that the head of UNPROFOR, General Satish
Nambiar of India, outlined three scenarios but rejected two
of them.
    The first was for soldiers or police to observe and
report, the second was for them to observe, search and
report and the third was to search, report and "deny
passage" to weapons and fighters.
    Nambiar, however, thought that only the third option of
directly stopping illegal goods or fighters was credible.
    Otherwise, the general felt that "the already strained
credibility of UNPROFOR (would) appear to the parties and
the media to be making only a token attempt at implementing
its mandate."
    "I share the force commander's view," Boutros-Ghali
said, adding that such an operation would take a force of
about 10,000 troops including logistic, medical and
engineering support units.
    Boutros-Ghali noted member states had not been able to
supply 75 military observers requested on October 30 to
monitor a no-fly zone at Bosnia's airports. Only 33 military
had been sent by December 10.
    "Even on optimistic assumptions about the availability
of troops, it is unlikely that UNPROFOR would have an
effective capability to observe Bosnia-Herzegovina's borders
before April 1993 at the earliest," Boutros-Ghali said.
    He said Bosnia, Yugoslavia and Croatia at different
times suggested monitors be stationed on their territories.


12/28 BOSNIANS SAID POISED TO TRY TO BREAK SARAJEVO SIEGE

    By Kurt Schork
    SARAJEVO, Dec 29, Reuter - Moslem-led forces are
reported to be poised for an attempt to break the siege of
Sarajevo while in Geneva diplomats stepped up efforts to end
Bosnia's war.
    Far from the negotiating table, meanwhile, Sarajevo's
most vulnerable residents started dying in the icy cold.
    U.N. officials said on Monday that elderly residents of
a nursing home were freezing to death at the rate of two a
day.
    "This is just a microcosm of what we're going to see
across Sarajevo," warned Peter Kessler, spokesman for the
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
    "They are freezing...you can see it in their faces two
or three days before they die," said staff worker Rada
Vokic.
    International mediators in Geneva said they were
concerned about reports of a Moslem build-up on Mount Igman,
a ridge to the south of the capital, Sarajevo.
    Fred Eckhard, spokesman for peace envoys Cyrus Vance and
Lord Owen, said the United Nations forces in Bosnia had
reported a concentration of forces on the mountain.
    "The concern is that there may be a major offensive in
preparation by the Bosnian government to try to regain lost
territory or possibly even to try to liberate Sarajevo,"
Eckhard told a news conference.
    Diplomats close to the peace conference in Geneva said
the reports caused concern as it was clear the Serbs and
Croats had achieved what they wanted in Bosnia while the
Bosnian government had virtually nothing left.
    "The Bosnians have little interest in negotiating from
such a point of weakness," said one.
    Mount Igman is a Moslem stronghold south of Sarajevo and
last year Moslem-led forces in the besieged city fought in
vain to break the siege and link up with their comrades on
the ridge.
    The reports cast a shadow over the peace talks which
went into high gear in preparation for Saturday's scheduled
first face-to-face meeting between Bosnia's factional
leaders.
    Representatives of the Bosnian factions and other
leaders from the former Yugoslavia held separate talks with
U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Vance and
Owen.
    As Sarajevo endured a lack of water, power, telephones
and adequate food, there were signs that government forces
were hitting back with increasing success against rebel
Serbs.
    A British spokesman in Vitez said reports from central
Bosnia spoke of a major Moslems and Croat push in the past
two weeks that had forced the Serbs back by up to 20 km (12
miles).
    "There has been quite a lot of fighting and considerable
progress has been made by the Bosnians into Serb salients,"
said British spokesman Captain Lee Smart.
    Bosnian radio and reported clashes in several areas and
Serbian news agency SRNA said particularly heavy fighting
was concentrated in the region of Bratunac in eastern Bosnia
and in Ilidza on the western part of the Sarajevo frontline.
    In Belgrade, radical Serbs took a tougher line after
their unexpected success at the ballot box. Vojislav Seselj,
leader of the extreme nationalist Serbian Radical Party,
said he would seek to oust Yugoslav Prime Minister Milan
Panic from office.
    "I expect Panic to end in prison," Seselj said,
promising a no-confidence vote on Tuesday in the federal
parliament.
    The United States on Monday warned Serbia against futher
destabilising acts in the province of Kosovo and left open
the possibility it would take unilateral military action to
halt the spread of fighting.
    The Yugoslav government issued a statement saying
further international sanctions would put Yugoslavia into
"an untenable situation." The U.N. imposed strict trade
sanctions against Belgrade earlier this year to try to force
the it to stop the fighting in Bosnia.