Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 3, 1993 TAG: 9304030006
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: BILECA, BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA LENGTH: Medium
SERBS REJECT BOSNIA PEACE PLAN
Bosnian Serbs rejected a U.N. peace plan for their embattled republic on Friday, thwarting efforts to end a year of bloody conflict and defying intense international pressure.The move, which had been expected, was made by acclamation in the Bosnian Serbs' self-proclaimed parliament. No vote was taken.
The deputies rejected a resolution drafted by Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic which said that "70 to 80 percent of the maps" proposed by international mediators Cyrus Vance and Lord David Owen were acceptable.
They called the wording too moderate and demanded outright rejection of the plan already accepted by rival Muslims and Croats.
Rejection further clouds the proposal drafted by the United Nations and the European Community and is likely to lead to more bloodshed in the former Yugoslav state.
Serb fighters have seized 70 percent of Bosnia. The U.N. plan would divide Bosnia-Herzegovina into 10 autonomous provinces and give Serbs 43 percent of the republic's territory.
Meanwhile at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, the United States and its allies on Friday approved an operation to keep Serbian aircraft from flying over Bosnia. The move is a significant expansion of the Western military role in the former Yugoslavia.
The mission, which could begin as early as next week, gives NATO planes authority to fire on violators and may involve 50 to 100 jet fighters.
The airborne operation approved by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization would be the first of its kind since the alliance was formed in 1949.
But enforcement of the flight ban may not significantly change the complexion of the ethnic war. The Serbs have mostly waged ground offensives against the Muslim-led government and have limited air power.
The U.N. Security Council on Wednesday authorized NATO warplanes to shoot down aircraft violating the no-fly zone. But it bowed to pressure from Russia, a longtime Serb ally, and ruled out preemptive strikes on Serb airfields.
In the Hague, Netherlands, on Friday, Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina accused each other of genocide in heated charges aired at the International Court of Justice.
Bosnia's Muslim-led government seeks emergency court protection against what it claims are genocidal acts by Serbia aimed at exterminating the new nation's Muslim population and creating a Greater Serbia.
Bosnia wants a ruling from the United Nations' judicial arm that outside military intervention would be legal to help its beleaguered forces.