Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, May 10, 1993 TAG: 9305100062
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: SARAJEVO, BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA LENGTH: Medium
In Washington, senior lawmakers said Sunday that President Clinton has not adequately articulated his Bosnia policy and lacks the votes in Congress for approval of military action against Bosnian Serbs.
"Ordinary members of Congress are really frustrated," said Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Ind., chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. "They are crying out for more information. They want to hear the goals, the objectives, and the costs articulated."
Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., joining Hamilton on NBC's "Meet the Press," agreed that the discussion on military options in Bosnia "is extremely vague, most members of Congress [are] very uneasy, perhaps the allies [are] too."
The American people, Lugar said, "need to hear from the president of the United States why this is in our national interest, what the plan is, the fact that others are going to cooperate with us."
Asked if the votes were there in Congress to back military action, Hamilton said: "I suspect they are not, as of today. But I also expect if the president asserts leadership and he puts this in a national security context that he would carry the day."
In Bosnia, U.N. military observers reached the embattled Muslim enclave of Zepa on foot.
A company of Ukrainian U.N. troops was reported blocked by Bosnian Serbs on the way to Zepa, where the peacekeepers hope to begin implementing a plan signed late Saturday to disarm the town.
The demilitarization of Zepa and another eastern town, Srebrenica, was part of the cease-fire agreement signed by Muslims and Serbs. Bosnian Croats did not sign the pact, which went into effect Sunday.
U.N. spokesman Jose Gallegos said Bosnian Croats attacked the forces of the Muslim-led Bosnian government in Mostar, 45 miles southwest of Sarajevo, Sunday.
The Croats are nominally allied with the Muslims against the Serbs, but dream of linking Croatian-held territory in southwestern Bosnia with Croatia. The easternmost border of such a Greater Croatia would be the Neretva River, which runs through Mostar.
The fighting was so intense it forced a U.N. Spanish battalion based in Mostar to pull back to surrounding hillsides, officials said.
John McMillan, a spokesman for the U.N. high commissioner for refugees in Sarajevo, said several apartment buildings in Mostar had been "ethnically cleansed" of all Muslim inhabitants.
Ten busloads of people, including children, were seen leaving the city under Croat guard, U.N. officials said, citing military observers. The civilians had earlier been herded into a soccer stadium.
Lt.-Gen. Lars-Eric Wahlgren, the U.N. commander in former Yugoslavia, demanded "active and urgent intervention" from Croatia's leaders.
In Sarajevo, U.N. spokesman Barry Frewer said Croatian President Franjo Tudjman had promised to try to bring calm.
Today, foreign ministers of the European Community will meet in Brussels, Belgium, to discuss tougher sanctions against the Bosnian Serbs. They are not expected to make firm military commitments, officials said Sunday.
by CNB