Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 28, 1995 TAG: 9505300085
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder/Tribune
DATELINE: ZAGREB, CROATIA LENGTH: Long
By the end of the disastrous day, two more French peacekeepers were dead and 10 wounded, most of them in a firefight to recapture the observation post. Moreover, U.N. officials here acknowledged that the Bosnian Serbs now hold 232 peacekeepers captive.
In New York, the U.N. Security Council met in emergency session behind closed doors. Its president, Jean-Bernard Merimee, who is also France's U.N. ambassador, emerged later to declare the United Nation's ``determination not to yield to blackmail.''
For all the tough talk, though, it appeared that was exactly what was unfolding. With U.N. peacekeepers humiliatingly handcuffed to poles and munitions bunkers as human shields, NATO held back Saturday from fresh airstrikes such as those on Thursday and Friday that precipitated the crisis.
Instead, Saturday saw a flurry of diplomatic forays and military posturing.
The U.S. aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt has been sent to the Adriatic Sea off of Croatia's coast to bolster the U.S. presence in the region, and the French Navy also dispatched a carrier and two escort ships Saturday.
At the urging of the French, Russian Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev and Defense Minister Pavel Grachev flew to Belgrade to confer with the government of Serbia, while U.S. Defense Secretary William Perry cut short a visit to Italy to meet with the German and British defense ministers in London.
``Now is the time to show international solidarity,'' Perry said. ``An important principle is at stake. What is being threatened here is not just the U.N. soldiers on the ground in Bosnia, but the ability of the international community to perform peacekeeping operations.''
It all began before sunrise with an audacious feat of derring-do by the Bosnian Serbs.
At 4:30 a.m., the Bosnian Serb commandos - disguised in their pilfered U.N. uniforms and vehicle - sneaked into the heart of Sarajevo, speaking in French to get through a U.N. checkpoint. Reaching an observation post located at both ends of a bridge over the Miljacka River, they easily overpowered 12 French soldiers and took them hostage.
The United Nations reacted swiftly and forcefully to this latest trespass. About 8 a.m., 30 French soldiers returned to the post with six light tanks and armored personnel carriers and recaptured one end of the 50-yard-long bridge. In a heavy exchange of fire, one French soldier and four Bosnian Serbs were killed.
Half of the post was recaptured by the French. Serbs held on to the other side of the bridge.
Fred Eckhard, a U.N. spokesman in Zagreb, described the storming of the post as another sign of the United Nations' new, more forceful response to the Bosnian Serbs.
``This hasn't happened before. It was extraordinary in peacekeeping terms,'' Eckhard said. ``We feel were are keeping up the pressure in Sarajevo - except now on the ground, instead of in the air.''
Still, the United Nations' use of force clearly had not lessened the peril for peacekeepers on the ground. Less than an hour after the firefight at the bridge, another French soldier standing guard near Sarajevo's Jewish cemetery was killed by a sniper bullet to the head.
In Paris, President Jacques Chirac said peacekeepers must be given stronger authority to protect themselves, or his country would withdraw its troops. He instructed French troops to resist Serb aggression against them ``by any means.''
Also Saturday, eight Canadian members of the U.N. peacekeeper force were overpowered by Bosnian Serbs and added to the hostages.
By telephone from Sarajevo, U.N. spokesman Jim Lansdale said about half the U.N. personnel being held by the Serbs in the besieged city are in various U.N. weapon-collections sites that have been stormed by the Serbs, while others simply are confined to their own barracks - unable to leave because of mines planted at the exits.
The military observers who had been chained as human shields on Friday were taken overnight to Serb barracks and allowed to sleep and eat before being shackled again Saturday.
``We spoke to one this morning, the Canadian who you saw on television with the glasses. We were relieved to hear from him,'' Lansdale said. ``They are being reasonably well treated, although obviously the manner in which they are being held is distressing to them.''
Another U.N. peacekeeper, a Swedish major identified as Mike Calmhede, was shown on video footage broadcast from Serb military barracks near Sarajevo, saying, ``The only thing is that we have had no food. But we have slept well during the night.''
U.N. officials have maintained frequent telephone contact with the men's Bosnian Serb captors, negotiating privately for their release.
``After three years in Bosnia, we know them,'' Eckhard said. ``They know us. It is not spiraling out of control, but it is eyeball to eyeball.''
The Associated Press contributed information to this story.
by CNB