From: CP6uH@plains.NoDak.edu
Newsgroups: soc.culture.yugoslavia
Subject: BOSNIAN FORCES 'PROVOKING' SHELLING
Date: 23 Jul 92 19:42:19 GMT
Article-I.D.: plains.19308
Organization: University of North Dakota at Grand Forks

BOSNIAN FORCES 'PROVOKING' SHELLING
YIGAL CHAZAN, The Guardian
Bosnian forces in Sarajevo have been provoking Serbian shelling of the 
city in an attempt to trigger Western military intervention, senior 
diplomats said in Belgrade Monday.
         The view is supported by the evidence provided by UN officials in 
Sarajevo, who confirmed thet on several occasions this month Bosnian fighters
opened fire on Serbian positions, apparently ignoring warnings of retaliation.
        A senior UN source said that in two separate instances Serb artillery
commanders contacted the peacekeeping headquarters in the centre of the city
to report that their gun bateries had come under mortar and small-arms attack
from Bosnian troops.
        On both occasions the Serbs told the UN commanders that they were 
willing to hold fire for up to three hours. Subsequent UN appeals failed to 
stop the coalition of Muslim and Croatian forces, resulting in heavy Serbian 
bombardment of the city.
        Under pressure from the European Community, the Bosnian presidency 
last week agreed to a fortnight's truce with the Serbs but Croatian and Muslim 
fighters fear that a ceasefire will serve only to give their enemy a breathing 
space before launching a final assault to partition the capital.
        "The military situation on both sides has yet to be resolved," a 
Western diplomat said. "The Bosnian presidency in convinced that the Serbs
want to establish a green line through the city." He said the Serbs seemed 
determined to capture the western suburb of Dobrinja, which they need to 
control in order to partition Sarajevo. The sprawling housing estate has
been the scene of some of the fiercest fighting in the last few months,
with Bosnian defenders desperately fighting off Serbian attacks from the 
surrounding hills.
        Much of the suburb is now in the Serbs' hands and Sarajevo's leaders
believe that a ceasefire would simply freeze the situation on the ground.
When a UN relief convoy was guaranteed safe passage into Dobrinja last week 
many of the residents who went out to greet the peacekeepers said that while 
they were grateful for the supplies of food and medicine they would have 
preferred guns and ammunition.
        International relief agencies say that the UN soldiers, faced with 
the constant threat of sniper and artillery fire, have played the pivotal role 
in distributing aid in the city. But Sarajevo's citizens are far from happy,
calling on the peacekeepers for active support in their attempts to lift the
Serbian stranglehold on their city.
        Frustrated by the UN's refusal to take sides in the conflict, the 
Bosnian news media particularly have sought to discredit the peacekeepers,
accusing them of sitting back while the Serbs cut the capital in two. In a 
recent example the Sarajevo daily, Oslobodjenje, accused the UN of being a 
"chetnik (Serb irregular) patsy" after blue helmets had ferried a Serb to 
their headquarters to be reunited with his family.
        However, diplomats say the UN is far more worried by the Bosnians' 
attempts to provoke Serbian fire and in so doing draw peacekeeping troops 
into the conflict.
        "The Sarajevo authoritiessee Western military intervention as their 
only hope to free the city and win back territories taken by the Serbs," 
a diplomat said. "There have already been occasions when UN troops have 
been forced to return fire. With plans to send more of them into the city 
there is a strong likelihood that this sort of incident will increase, 
jeopardizing the UN's impartiality."