Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, April 18, 1994 TAG: 9404180097
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: From The Washington Post and The Associated Press
DATELINE: SARAJEVO LENGTH: Medium
U.N. special envoy Yasushi Akashi said he saw little prospect for ending the Serb onslaught there.
Much of Gorazde already had fallen to the Serbs, though there For updated information, call InfoLine and enter code 2023. were pockets of resistance around town Sunday. Serbian forces appeared free to move elsewhere about town.
Serb forces displayed a new aggressiveness toward U.N. forces near Sarajevo as well, provoking a fierce gun battle with British troops in a northern suburb of the capital.
U.N. spokesmen also said the Serbs had so far failed to release most of the estimated 200 U.N. observers they have held as virtual hostages since U.N. military commanders called in NATO air strikes on Serb artillery and armor positions in Gorazde last week.
The U.N. Security Council, in a nonbinding statement read late Sunday, condemned "the escalating military activities by the Serb forces against Gorazde." It made no threat of force to enforce its condemnation.
Tens of thousands of Gorazde residents, who have been under fire for most of the two-year war, cowered Sunday in buildings or huddled fearfully in rain as the Serbs' tanks lumbered down the streets.
A senior government official in Gorazde told Sarajevo radio that 21 people had been killed and at least 55 wounded by the Serb attacks.
Taking control of Gorazde, 35 miles southeast of Sarajevo, is a substantial victory for the Bosnian Serbs because it improves road links between land they captured to the east and south.
It also is another blow to efforts to end the war by the world community, often criticized as weak and unfocused.
Despite Gorazde's designation as a protected zone for Muslims last year by the United Nations, the Serbs continued their siege and were undeterred by NATO air missions in the past two weeks.
Bosnian Premier Haris Silajdzic blasted the United Nations for failing to defend Gorazde.
Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic said Sunday that he is prepared to discuss an overall settlement to the war "now that America is mentioning lifting of sanctions."
Karadzic referred to reports Saturday that the Clinton administration had rejected any expansion of the NATO air campaign in Bosnia and had agreed to discuss a European proposal for the phased lifting of U.N.-imposed economic sanctions on the Bosnian Serbs and neighboring Serbia.
In Washington on Sunday, President Clinton said only that the United States and NATO would continue to respond with air power if asked to do so by the U.N. commander in Bosnia, but added that the United States also has "a diplomatic role, and we are doing our best to fulfill it."
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