Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 31, 1995 TAG: 9505310091
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE: SARAJEVO, BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA LENGTH: Medium
The defiant statement from the Serbs, who released some soldiers but continued to hold more than 320 other U.N. troops hostage, came as British forces arrived in the Croatian port of Split to reinforce the U.N. force in Bosnia by providing it with artillery for the first time.
Bosnian Serbs captured seven more peacekeepers Tuesday.
About 2,000 U.S. Marines and a French aircraft carrier moved closer to the Adriatic coast, 120 miles southwest of Sarajevo, in a show of force that underscored the gravity of the hostage crisis.
A state of extreme tension prevailed in Sarajevo, with the city's streets largely deserted, water and electricity supplies cut, NATO fighter planes circling overhead and jumpy French soldiers at U.N. bases pointing machine guns at any approaching vehicle.
In taking their hostages, the Serbs have also seized at least six U.N. tanks, 12 armored personnel carriers and more than 25 armored jeeps. ``They've got what they need to look like a company of peacekeepers,'' said one U.N. official. ``It's very worrying.''
Meeting in their stronghold of Pale, nine miles from Sarajevo, the political and military leaders of the separatist Serbs issued a statement accusing the United Nations and NATO of ``flagrant interference in the conflict'' and ``siding with one party.''
The statement added, ``All Security Council resolutions, all NATO resolutions and all accords with the United Nations, which have been abused, are declared void.''
The U.N. headquarters in Sarajevo responded by accusing the Serbs of disregarding international law ``on a scale unseen in Europe for years'' and flouting ``civilized principles of behavior.''
Spokesmen for Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic labeled the hostages ``prisoners of war'' and said their ``destiny'' rests in the hands of their commanders. Aleksa Buha, the self-styled foreign minister of the Bosnian Serbs, said the hostages would be released if NATO and the United Nations formally renounced all military threats.
Some peacekeepers remained chained to potential NATO airstrike targets, despite a promise to halt the practice, U.N. officials said. Still, U.N. officials said the Serbs were treating the captives reasonably well and had released some Russians, traditional Serb allies, as well as six French soldiers.
``We will not be intimidated,'' NATO Secretary-General Willy Claes told reporters at a news conference after a daylong meeting in the Netherlands. ``The U.N. peacekeeping force must stay, with its safety enhanced in a way that allows it to carry out its mission.''
NATO foreign ministers, in a separate development with important implications for Europe's future, also forged a new relationship with Russia, winning Moscow's agreement to enter a permanent dialogue with its former enemy as well as its participation in cooperative activities with the alliance.
``Right now, the United Nations appears to be beyond any reconciliation with the Serbs,'' said Alexander Ivanko, a spokesman for Lt. Gen. Rupert Smith, commander of the 22,000 U.N. soldiers in Bosnia.
Ivanko, who recently said the Serbs were behaving like terrorists, was accused Tuesday by the self-styled Bosnian Serb government of ``insulting and slandering the Serbs.''
The U.N. spokesman, a Russian who Serbs initially perceived as a potential friend, was warned ``to go home before it is too late'' and told he might ``run into an accident'' if he did not.
The sharp deterioration in relations between the Serbs and the United Nations appears to be linked to more than the NATO airstrikes last week. The arrival of Smith to replace Lt. Gen. Sir Michael Rose has brought a sharp change of style.
Rose was not above bending the rules in the interest of compromise with the Serbs. Smith has brought a cool rigor and an apparently implacable interpretation of the U.N. mandate.
The mandate is not neutral. It backs the legal government of Bosnia by calling on the United Nations, for example, to protect the ``safe area'' of Sarajevo.
The Serbs' resumption of shelling Sarajevo with banned heavy guns led Smith last week to order the NATO bombing of ammunition depots near Pale.
Since then, officials said, Smith has spoken to the Bosnian Serb commander, Gen. Ratko Mladic, three times. The upshot was not good. Mladic once scoffed that Smith should ``go take some tranquilizers.'' Smith said the Serb was behaving ``like a terrorist.''
The Los Angeles Times contributed information to this story.
by CNB