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

DATE: SUNDAY, August 7, 1994                   TAG: 9408080066
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: SARAJEVO, BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA                                LENGTH: Medium

SERBS BACK DOWN

Stung by a NATO air strike, Bosnian Serbs returned weapons they had seized from a U.N.-guarded depot, and peacekeepers turned Saturday to ferreting out snipers terrifying the city.

The air strike, in which two U.S. A-10s destroyed an anti-tank vehicle, came after Bosnian Serbs took a tank, two armored personnel carriers and a mobile anti-aircraft gun from a U.N. depot just west of Sarajevo. Serbs fired at a U.N. helicopter sent to check on the tank.

There were no casualties reported in the air strike. The Bosnian Serbs, facing increasingly strong resistance from the government army and abandonment by their patrons in Yugoslavia, said they needed the weapons for an ongoing battle near Sarajevo.

The seizures violated a NATO ultimatum banning heavy weapons in a 12.5-mile zone around Sarajevo. NATO and U.N. officials threatened further air strikes if the Serbs again violated the exclusion zone.

U.N. spokesman Maj. Rob Annink made clear that the overall issue of heavy weapons in the exclusion zone had not been resolved, and that the United Nations was protesting to the Serbs about mortar rounds fired recently near Sarajevo, including three rounds fired Friday.

The exclusion zone, established in February, had brought a semblance of normalcy to the city that had been under siege for nearly two years. But truce violations have increased recently, notably sniper fire.

Annink said peacekeeper patrols would start house-to-house searches of suspected sniper positions, including high-rise buildings from which snipers have targeted streetcar passengers. One rider was killed and 20 wounded in the past week.

Authorities shut down the streetcar Saturday, a logistical inconvenience and blow to morale in the capital. Restoration of streetcar service in March had been seen as an omen that Sarajevo's suffering might soon be over.

But the Bosnian Serbs have shown no inclination to halt the fighting, despite almost-total isolation.

The weapon seizure came a day after Serbia said it was cutting off economic and political ties because Bosnian Serbs rejected an international peace plan.

The plan would require Bosnian Serbs to give up about a third of the 70 percent of Bosnia they control after 28 months of war. Muslims and Croats would regain control of the remaining 51 percent.

by CNB