From: hubey@pilot.njin.net (Hubey)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.europe
Subject: Bosnia
Date: 25 Jan 93 03:05:14 GMT
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.


Reposted from;


From trh@jack.sns.com (Al Trh) Tue Jan 19 17:31:59 1993
1/17 Yugoslav Units Re Enter War

   SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina -- The Serb-dominated
Yugoslav army has re-entered the war it formally quit seven
months ago, returning fire after Muslims in Bosnia lobbed
shells across the border, army sources said Sunday.
   The Yugoslav army "responded fiercely" to Muslim
artillery attacks Sunday and Saturday from neighboring
Bosnia, Tanjug, the official news agency of Serbian-
dominated Yugoslavia, reported without elaboration.
   No ground troops were involved, only artillery salvos at
Muslim military targets across the border, according to a
source at Yugoslav army headquarters in Belgrade.
   It was the first time that Yugoslavia, now comprised of
only Serbia and tiny Montenegro, has acknowledged
involvement in the Bosnian war since May 19. The last
Yugoslav units formally pulled out on that date, leaving
behind tanks and other heavy weapons for Serb rebels.
   Since then, both Yugoslav and Serbian officials have
denied wide-spread accusations that they are helping Bosnian
Serbs.
   Meanwhile, a U.N. convoy tried anew to reach isolated
Zepa, a Muslim enclave of about 20,000 people that is
reportedly being starved by surrounding ethnic-Serb
fighters.
   Serb fighters turned back the truck convoy on Saturday
within sight of Zepa because the road was blocked by logs.
In doing so, they stopped 80 tons of relief supplies from
reaching the town, where hundreds of people have reportedly
died from hunger and cold.
   Cmdr. Barry Frewer, spokesman for U.N. peacekeepers, said
the convoy spent the night in Podromanija, half way between
Zepa and Sarajevo, after turning back just outside Zepa, 65
kilometers (40 miles) east of Sarajevo.
   Frewer said the convoy on Sunday would try to reach Zepa
by another route, recommended by Bosnian fighters.
   "There's no thought of pulling back before we have
exhausted all possibilities in getting through," he said of
the enclave that has not received aid since the outbreak of
the nearly 10-month-old civil war.
   Zepa shortwave radio operators, the only link to the
outside world, say hundreds or people have died in and
around their town of hunger and cold. Other regions have
reported similar disasters.
   Bosnian radio on Saturday reported 60 people froze to
death in the last few days in the region of Zvornik, on the
Serbian border 100 kilometers (60 miles) northeast of
Sarajevo.
   The cross-border artillery exchanges between Bosnian and
Yugoslav units occurrd near Bratunac, a Bosnian town 120
kilometers (75 miles) northeast of Sarajevo. Local Serb
commanders in Bratunac said they were trying to counter a
Muslim offensive they described as the toughest in the
region since the war began in February.
   The Serb commanders accused Muslim-led troops of recent
massacres of civilians in the region.
   Bosnian Serbs have been considered the chief perpetrators
of massacres and other war crimes. But evidence of many
civilian deaths was clearly visible in Bratunac on Saturday.
AP reporter Dusan Stojanovic saw about 100 freshly dug
graves with some markers bearing names of victims as young
as 12.

01/17 1137  BRITISH DEFENCE MINISTER TRIES TO ALLAY BOSNIA
FEARS

    By Peter Bale
    LONDON, Jan 17, Reuter - Defence Secretary Malcolm
Rifkind tried on Sunday to calm fears Britain is being
dragged into a Vietnam-style morass in Bosnia as he
dispatched a naval task force to back up 2,400 troops
already there.
    "The United Kingdom's forces in Bosnia are there for
purely humanitarian purposes...," Rifkind said in an
interview with British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
television.
    Politicians from all sides have begun to question the
British commitment to United Nations humanitarian efforts in
the former Yugoslavia. Their concern was heightened last
week with the death of the first British soldier in Bosnia,
killed in crossfire between Moslems and Croats.
    Many also fear the naval task force could be the
beginning of a deeper military commitment in the former
Yugoslavia.
    Rifkind said ships sent to the Adriatic on Sunday were
an "insurance policy" to provide back up British troops
might need. He has stressed the ships could be useful for
defence or for outright withdrawal.
    Frigates Brilliant and Coventry left Portsmouth on
Sunday to join the aircraft carrier Ark Royal -- equipped
with Sea King helicopters and Sea Harrier jump jets -- on
standby off the coast of former Yugoslavia. They are
expected to take a week to reach the area.
    "They may not be needed but if they are needed I want
them to be able to get there to help our British forces to
improve their safety in hours rather than in days or weeks,"
he said.
    A survey of 70 politicians of Rifkind's ruling
Conservative Party in the Sunday Times newspaper suggested
24 per cent wanted British withdrawal now with 34 per cent
arguing for a pullout if there were "considerably more
casualties."
    Many fear an all-too-familiar open-ended commitment.
    "When I first visited Vietnam there were 600 American
advisers in that country but when I visited Vietnam for the
second time there were 500,000 American troops there,"
Conservative politician Sir Peter Tapsell said last week.
    Rifkind said he was mindful of the risks.
    "It's not a question of waiting for injuries to happen.
It's coming to a considered judgement as to whether the
level of risk has so increased...that it would be improper
to continue..."
    He stressed that there was no prospect of the British
troops being called upon to use force to push aid routes
through.
    "We are not there to fight our way through," he said.
    Rifkind declined to be drawn on the implications for
British troops of enforcing the United Nations air exclusion
zone over Bosnia.
    Bosnian Serb forces have threatened to retaliate if the
no-fly zone imposed last October is enforced militarily.
    Rifkind reiterated the British view that the zone had
already been largely effective in halting flights by combat
aircraft though there had been helicopter flights.


01/17  MOSLEMS, CROATS TURN ON EACH OTHER IN BOSNIA

    By Meriel Beattie
    BELGRADE, Jan 17, Reuter - Bosnia's Moslems and their
Croat allies turned on each other in parts of central Bosnia
on Sunday, while fresh battles between Moslems and Serbs
flared on the border with Serbia.
    The increased fighting stoked tensions just 48 hours
before Bosnia's Serb leaders were due to vote on an
international peace plan which western mediators hope could
end bloodshed in the former Yugoslav republic.
    Croat and United Nations military spokesmen said units
of the Bosnian Moslem army and Croatian Defence Council
(HVO) militia were pounding each other with artillery,
rocket and heavy machinegun fire in Gornji Vakuf in central
Bosnia.
    A spokesman for the U.N. Protection Force UNPROFOR said
some 250 British troops deployed in the town took cover
behind special shell-proof walls but were in no immediate
danger.
    On Bosnia's border with Serbia, fierce battles between
Moslems and Bosnian Serbs raged for a second day in the
Skelani area in what the Yugoslav government denounced as a
Moslem attempt to wreck prospects of a peace deal.
    The Belgrade-based news agency Tanjug said at least 46
people, mostly women and children but also some Bosnian Serb
fighters, had been killed and around 150 wounded since
artillery and infantry battles began early on Saturday.
    Belgrade television showed graphic pictures of corpses
of civilians, including children it said were among 22 Serbs
killed by Moslems at the village of Josanica near Foca. It
did not say when the alleged attack took place.
    Sarajevo radio, controlled by the Moslem-led
authorities, said seven people were killed in a Serb air
raid on the Moslem village of Srebrenica, which is close to
Skelani.
    "Srebrenica is burning. What is being unleashed on
Srebrenica these days is worse than hell," the radio said.
The report could not be independently confirmed.
    Just 20 km (12 miles) away from Skelani, a U.N. convoy
finally reached the Moslem settlement of Zepa after trying
for three days to lift a nine-month siege.
    The convoy drove into Zepa with 80 tonnes of food and
medicines after being hampered for two days by roadblocks,
tree barricades and minefields within sight of the stricken
town.
    A spokeswoman for the U.N. High Commissioner for
Refugees in the Croatian capital Zagreb said the trucks had
been unloaded but would spend the night in Zepa before
leaving.
    The weekend fighting cast an ominous shadow over
Tuesday's meeting of the self-styled parliament of Bosnia's
Serbs to decide whether to accept the basis of a peace deal
negotiated in Geneva last week.
    The vote is expected to be close, with many deputies
openly opposing Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic's
endorsement of a complex constitutional formula for 10
autonomous provinces within a sovereign Bosnia.
    But Nikola Koljevic, one of three Bosnian Serb vice-
presidents, told reporters on Sunday that the fighting
should not be allowed to threaten the Geneva talks.
    "I hope the leadership of the (Bosnian) Serb republic
will be able to explain that the Geneva proposal is in our
best interests and represents a major step towards peace,"
the Bosnian Serb news agency SRNA reported him as saying.
    The renewed Croat-Moslem clashes put further strain on
an already shaky alliance. Earlier on Sunday Bosnia's
defence minister, an ethnic Croat, called for three Moslem
army units to be placed under Croatian control.
    The minister, Bozo Rajic, said this was to conform with
Geneva peace proposals, but the call was rejected by
President Alija Izetbegovic.
    Many officials in Sarajevo's Moslem-led government do
not trust Rajic and view such a move as a Croat bid to
tighten control over western parts of the country ahead of a
possible peace deal.

01/17  FRESH BATTLES IN BOSNIA OVERSHADOW HOPES FOR PEACE

    By Meriel Beattie
    BELGRADE, Jan 18, Reuter - Pitched battles between
Moslems and their Croat allies and fresh clashes between
Moslems and Serbs cast an ominous shadow over hopes that
Bosnia's Serbs will accept an international peace plan this
week.
    The parliament of the Bosnian Serbs' self-styled
republic is due to meet on Tuesday to discuss acceptance of
the plan for a post-war Bosnia which Western mediators hope
will be a decisive step towards ending nine months of
bloodshed.
    But the ferocity of fighting across Bosnia throughout
the weekend made any chance of peace seem a long way off.
    In central Bosnia, units of the Bosnian Moslem army and
Croatian Defence Council (HVO) militia turned on each other
in Gornji Vakuf on Sunday, pounding each other with
artillery, rocket and heavy machinegun fire.
    A spokesman for the U.N. Protection Force (UNPROFOR)
said some 250 British troops deployed in the town took cover
behind special shell-proof walls but were in no immediate
danger. A British U.N. soldier was killed in Gornji Vakuf
last Wednesday.
    On Bosnia's border with Serbia, battles between Moslems
and Bosnian Serbs flared throughout the weekend.
    Both sides accused each other of atrocities and the
Yugoslav government denounced the clashes as a Moslem
attempt to wreck prospects of a peace deal.
    The Belgrade-based news agency Tanjug said at least 46
people, mostly women and children but also some Bosnian Serb
fighters, had been killed and around 150 wounded since
artillery and infantry battles began early on Saturday.
    Belgrade television showed graphic pictures of blood-
drenched corpses, including children, who it said were among
22 Serbs killed by Moslems at the village of Josanica near
Foca. It did not say when the alleged attack took place.
    Sarajevo radio, controlled by the Moslem-led
authorities, said seven people were killed in a Serb air
strike on the Moslem village of Srebrenica.
    "What is being unleashed on Srebrenica these days is
worse than hell," the radio said. The report could not be
independently confirmed.
    The upsurge in fighting overshadowed humanitarian
efforts to feed civilians trapped by the fighting and free
prisoners taken by both sides.
    While gun battles rocked the border area, a long-delayed
U.N. aid convoy finally reached the Moslem settlement of
Zepa after three failed attempts to deliver food and
medicines to the town, which has been cut off from the
outside world since March.
    In Sarajevo, Bosnia's besieged capital, French Health
and Humanitarian Action Minister Bernard Kouchner arranged
the release of 28 Serbs (Eds: correct) held prisoner in
Sarajevo, according to the Bosnian Serb news agency SRNA.
    The peace plan, drafted by an international conference
in Geneva, proposes dividing Bosnia into 10 autonomous
provinces. Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic has said he
agrees to the plan and will resign if his parliament rejects
it.
    But even if the plan is accepted by the Bosnian Serbs,
any bid to secure peace in Bosnia will have to take into
account a surge in animosity between Croats and Moslem which
is ripping apart an already shaky alliance.
    Croat commanders have issued ultimatums to Moslem army
units in areas designated as Croat cantons in the Geneva
proposals to submit to their control there.
    But Bosnia's Moslem president Alija Izetbegovic opposes
the Geneva map for giving its largest ethnic group the least
land -- almost 90 per cent is now held by Serbs or Croats --
and has spurned the Croat demands.
-- 

	mark	

   hubey@amiga.montclair.edu         hubey@apollo.montclair.edu
   hubey@pilot.njin.net               ...!rutgers!pilot!hubey    
Xref: sparky soc.culture.europe:11488 soc.culture.greek:12648