
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, June 19, 1993                   TAG: 9306190032
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: UNITED NATIONS                                LENGTH: Short

U.N. TO SEND 7,600 SOLDIERS TO `SAFE AREAS'

The Security Council gave final approval Friday to sending 7,600 soldiers to six Bosnian cities which are to be "safe areas" for besieged Muslims.

The council unanimously approved accepting Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali's blueprint for sending additional U.N. soldiers to Sarajevo, Bihac, Gorazde, Srebrenica, Tuzla and Zepa. Nine thousand U.N. soldiers are already stationed in Bosnia.

The United States will provide air power to protect the troops, who will be authorized to deter Serb attacks. Boutros-Ghali said that if warring parties do not honor cease-fires in the six areas, a total of 34,000 troops may be needed.

The deployment could be weeks or months away and will come as international efforts to end the war in Bosnia are in disarray. A plan to create 10 ethnic-based provinces and a strong national government has been called a failure by Lord Owen, the European Community's mediator on former Yugoslavia, who devised the plan with former U.N. mediator Cyrus Vance.

Owen now recommends that Bosnia's Muslims accept a new Serb-Croat proposal to divide Bosnia into three ethnic zones.

by CNB