Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, April 11, 1994 TAG: 9404110088
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: SARAJEVO, BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA LENGTH: Medium
It was the first NATO attack on ground positions in its 44 years. In U.S. action set stage for NATO air strikes. A3 February, NATO jets downed four Serb planes violating a "no-fly zone" over Bosnia, which has been convulsed by civil war since seceding from Yugoslavia two years ago.
NATO headquarters in Naples, Italy, said the planes were U.S. F-16Cs based in Aviano, Italy, and said the attack was requested by U.N. peacekeepers in Gorazde because of the Serb advance.
"The United Nations made it absolutely clear that there were U.N. personnel in Gorazde, that an attack on the town would be interpreted as a clear violation of the rules," President Clinton told reporters in Washington.
"We said we would act if we were requested to do so. We have now done so and will do so again if we are requested."
Clinton urged the Bosnian Serbs to return to the negotiating table.
"I very much hope that now the attacks will cease, that the Serbs will go back, that the talks will resume," he said.
U.N. officials in Sarajevo said Serb shelling of Gorazde stopped about an hour after the attack Sunday evening.
"The situation in the town is very calm right now," Olivier Van Bunnen, a representative of Doctors Without Borders in Gorazde, told The Associated Press via ham radio four hours after the bombing.
U.N. and NATO officials did not specify the target of the bombing and said the extent of the damage was being assessed. Italian RAI state television said at least two tanks were hit.
Bosnian Serbs accused NATO of hitting civilian targets.
"NATO aircraft fired four missiles at civilian targets," Gen. Milan Gvero, deputy commander of the Bosnian Serb army, was quoted as saying by the Bosnian Serb news agency SRNA. He said there were civilian casualties but did not elaborate.
by CNB