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

DATE: FRIDAY, April 8, 1994                   TAG: 9404080116
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

U.S. WANTS U.N. PEACEKEEPERS SENT TO GORAZDE

The Clinton administration is calling for the quick dispatch of hundreds of U.N. peacekeepers to Serb-encircled Gorazde in eastern Bosnia and vowing to have NATO air power defend them if they are attacked.

Deploying the peacekeepers "could be a basis for possible air strikes," Secretary of State Warren Christopher said Thursday night.

"Once we have United Nations troops there in Gorazde, then we do have a military option, because NATO has a right to go to their protection if they ask for help," he said on PBS' "MacNeil-Lehrer Newshour."

"We have an obligation and a right to go in and help those troops," Christopher said.

In a policy speech, Anthony Lake, the national security adviser, said Thursday "a contingent of U.N. forces should soon be on its way to Gorazde. It is important that this happen as soon as possible."

Other administration officials said the plan was being put on a fast track and that it would involve hundreds of Ukrainians and also British and French troops already on peacekeeeping duty in the Balkans.

"Let me be clear," Lake said at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. "Neither the president nor any of his senior advisers rules out the use of NATO power to help stop attacks such as those against Gorazde."

by CNB