Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 24, 1993 TAG: 9302240177
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: From Knight-Ridder/Tribune and The New York Times
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
U.N. CHIEF ENDORSES AIRDROPS
President Clinton's plan for a U.S. airlift of emergency supplies to Bosnia-Herzegovina cleared a major hurdle Tuesday when the United Nations secretary-general, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, endorsed the proposal after meeting with Clinton at the White House."We completely agree," Boutros-Ghali told reporters after the meeting, which Clinton had requested after U.N. officials voiced serious concerns about the operation. "There is no problem. This will be done in complete coordination."
Administration aides said no decision had been made to go ahead with the humanitarian airlift, but military experts were said to be in the final planning stages and officials said the supply operation could begin by the end of the week.
Boutros-Ghali downplayed previous warnings by U.N. officials that an American airlift might exacerbate tensions and provoke military retaliation from Serbian forces. "We will take all of the precautions to avoid any kind of an escalation," he said.
In separate comments, Clinton stressed the mission would have "no combat connotations whatsoever. . . . We think the risks are quite small."
Administration officials said they reached agreement with Boutros-Ghali that U.S. pilots would operate the flights and take orders from U.S. commanders, but the operation would be fully coordinated with the U.N. Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the U.N. Protection Force, which oversee the overland relief efforts.
The original plan, as disclosed in recent days, was for the airdrops to be made over Bosnian Muslim villages that had been cut off by Bosnian Serbs from receiving overland supplies.
Tuesday, in an obvious conciliatory gesture to the Serbs, American officials said they were considering having airdrops made over Bosnian Serb and Croatian villages as well.
Some allies and U.N. officials had been complaining privately that the U.S., getting absorbed in largely symbolic airdrops, was losing sight of the fact that the warring parties were refusing to return to the negotiations for a settlement of the crisis.
U.S. officials have countered that by spurring the humanitarian relief effort with airdrops, they hope to encourage the parties to get back to negotiations and stop wrangling over food convoys.
This week, UN supplies of food and medicine began flowing into Sarajevo again after 10 days in which all shipments were halted by a Bosnian government blockade.