Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 6, 1995 TAG: 9509060083
SECTION: NATL/INTL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: SARAJEVO, BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA LENGTH: Medium
The airstrikes appeared to end about an hour after they started, at least around Sarajevo. But U.N. and NATO officials said they were open-ended.
``The attacks will go on until the Serbs comply with our demands,'' said U.N. spokesman Chris Gunness. ``We hope that a strong signal being sent to the Bosnian Serbs will make them realize that the international community is serious.''
However, heavy rain that began Tuesday night around Sarajevo limited the chances of new NATO attacks until the weather improved.
Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon said U.S. warplanes flying from Aviano, Italy, and the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt in the Adriatic Sea made up more than half the NATO strike force. A Western military source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said about 80 U.S. warplanes were involved.
Tuesday's targets - similar to those attacked last week - included ammunition depots and communications facilities, Bacon said.
The primary aim of the bombardment was to stop the shelling of civilians by forcing the Serbs to pull some 300 heavy weapons at least 121/2 miles away from Sarajevo. But the NATO planes were not always able to get at Serb artillery emplacements because of their proximity to populated areas.
U.N. forces, which backed up NATO planes last week, helped out again Tuesday, destroying a Serb mortar south of the city as it was preparing to fire, U.N. officials said.
The Bosnian Serb military leader, Gen. Ratko Mladic, offered Monday to call a unilateral cease-fire around Sarajevo. But he refused to pull back the guns, defying a pledge to do so by Bosnian Serb political leaders.
NATO airstrikes resumed about 12 hours after the deadline for the Serbs to comply had expired.
The Bosnian Serb military said Tuesday's raids caused extensive damage and civilian casualties.
Bosnian Serb television showed several demolished houses, a crying woman dressed in black and a man almost cut in half lying in a coffin. It said one civilian was killed and a woman and two children were wounded when NATO planes bombed Hresa, a village northeast of Sarajevo.
There was no confirmation.
The Western allies also have demanded that the rebel Serbs reopen Sarajevo's airport and land routes into the city, and end attacks on the three other U.N.-declared ``safe areas.''
The airstrikes also were meant to emphasize the West's seriousness before peace talks resume Friday.
The United Nations wants the Serbs to accept a U.S. initiative that would give them 49 percent of Bosnia, compared with the nearly 70 percent they hold now. A Bosnian Croat and Muslim federation would get the rest.
``They cannot win this war through an escalation of a military conflict,'' Gunness said in Zagreb, Croatia. ``They have to sit now at the negotiating table and talk peace.''
President Clinton said the NATO airstrikes Tuesday were an ``appropriate'' response to the Serbs' refusal to end their 31/2-year-old siege of Sarajevo. Russia, traditional ally of the Serbs, claimed the Serbs were preparing to pull back when the attacks came, and accused the West of siding with Bosnia's Muslim-led government.
U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke, who is trying to organize support for the U.S. peace initiative, planned to meet again today with Milosevic.
The peace talks are to begin in Geneva on Friday.
Keywords:
INFOLINE
by CNB