Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, February 21, 1994 TAG: 9402210126
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: From The Associated Press and The Boston Globe
DATELINE: SARAJEVO, BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA LENGTH: Medium
But the Western alliance warned that any movement of weapons back toward Sarajevo or attacks on the battered Bosnian capital would bring retaliation from NATO.
The U.N. commander, Lt. Gen. Sir Michael Rose, said that even though some artillery pieces remain on the snowbound hills, the Bosnian Serb forces appeared to be in compliance with the spirit and most of the terms of the NATO ultimatum.
Officials in Washington, Brussels and at a NATO base in Italy issued statements echoing that view, with NATO Secretary-General Manfred Woerner saying the alliance will follow U.N. recommendations not to use air power "at this stage" in Bosnia.
"We are reasonably optimistic that we will come to a peaceful end to this terrible war," Rose said.
"If there are breaches tomorrow, I will not hesitate to call in the air strikes," he said Sunday night.
As the deadline approached, U.N. forces were examining some remaining Bosnian Serb gun sites. Bosnia's Muslim president, Alija Izetbegovic, urged NATO to bomb those sites.
But Yasushi Akashi, the U.N.'s senior official in former Yugoslavia charged with deciding on air strikes, said he saw no immediate need.
"I have decided that it is not necessary at this stage for me to request NATO to use air power," Akashi said in Zagreb, Croatia.
NATO, after nearly two years of painful debate over whether to get involved in Bosnia's war, had demanded all heavy weapons pull back 12 miles from Sarajevo or be placed under U.N. control. Otherwise it would launch air strikes.
Woerner, speaking at NATO headquarters in Brussels, said he had agreed in telephone calls with President Clinton to keep the threat of air strikes intact in case weapons were moved back toward Sarajevo or the city was attacked.
"All parties should be aware that the ultimatum stands," Clinton said. "The deadline has not been extended. Any heavy weapons in the exclusion zone not under U.N. control are and will remain subject to air strikes."
In and around Sarajevo, Bosnian Serbs appeared under stepped-up diplomatic pressure to comply Sunday, as Russian special envoy Vitaly Cherkin arrived for talks with Bosnian Serb leaders. The Bosnian Serbs began withdrawing their heavy artillery after Russia agreed to dispatch its UN troops.
To encourage compliance, 400 Russian troops joined the U.N. peacekeeping force.
Cherkin, asked Sunday about the progress of the Serb withdrawal, said, "Not all arrangements are perfect." But he added: "Is the imperfection worth disrupting peace?"
As the 7 p.m. EST Sunday deadline passed, the roar of a solitary jet could be heard in misty skies. A C-130 that has been flying over on nightly surveillance also droned through the skies.
While U.N. commanders have said there is significant withdrawal of Serb heavy weaponry to points outside the exclusion zone, they have refused to provide the number of trucks or weapons that left.
Bosnian Serbs spent Sunday night by campfires, roasting oxen and lambs, drinking brandy and singing nationalist songs on Mount Trebevic overlooking Sarajevo.
On the roads around Trebevic, last-minute movements of trucks hauling guns could be seen.
A group of drunken Serb soldiers - carrying shoulder-launched anti-aircraft missiles - were stopping cars, greeting the occupants with the traditional three-finger Serbian salute.
"We invite everybody to join us here. If they bomb, we will fight back. Nobody can kill us all and we will all live in a united Serb state," said Goran Petkovic, a soldier from Serbia.
Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic had said the Serbs would meet the NATO deadline. More than half their weapons have been withdrawn, he told CNN on Sunday, adding that his forces did not plan to use those guns in other parts of Bosnia, where there is still fighting.
Two Bosnian government soldiers were seriously wounded by sniper fire Sunday, according to hospital officials.
Keywords:
INFOLINE
by CNB