Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, September 15, 1995 TAG: 9509150094
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: SARAJEVO, BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA LENGTH: Medium
The airstrikes will resume if the Serbs fail to withdraw the weapons, the United Nations said in a statement in New York.
Bosnian Serb military and political leaders signed an agreement in Belgrade ``in which they committed themselves to withdraw their heavy weapons from the 20-kilometer [12.5-mile] exclusion zone around Sarajevo,'' the statement said.
In response, NATO and U.N. military commanders declared the 3-day suspension, the statement said.
During the suspension, humanitarian aid convoys will travel to Sarajevo on two roads through Serb territory that have been closed and it is expected that Sarajevo airport will be re-opened without restrictions, the statement said.
U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke on Thursday raced across the Balkans for meetings with top officials, trying to clinch the agreement.
The agreement significantly advances the beleaguered effort to bring 31/2 years of bloodshed in Bosnia to an end and will allow NATO to move back from its openly aggressive stance, which has the Serbs bristling.
It also eases tensions between the United States and Russia, which was enraged by the bombing campaign, and adds impetus to mediators' efforts, which gained momentum last week with an accord among Bosnia's warring parties over a possible future political arrangement.
Muslim-led government forces and Croat allies persisted meanwhile in their ground campaign, easily capturing several key towns. Tens of thousands of Serb civilians were reportedly fleeing the advance.
Earlier this week, Moscow accused NATO of committing genocide against the Serbs. Strobe Talbott, the U.S. deputy secretary of state, was in Moscow on Thursday to try to mend relations.
Before Thursday night's U.N. statement, sources in Washington said the United States had gained a pledge from Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, who is negotiating for the Bosnian Serbs, that the heavy weapons would be pulled out. U.S. State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns said both Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and military commander Gen. Ratko Mladic had attended part of the meeting and that they supported the plan.
The deal reportedly calls for U.N. inspection of both Bosnian Serb and government weapons.
Other sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the plan also called for a cease-fire in the Sarajevo area and guarantees that the Serbs would be protected from government attack.
A senior Bosnian Serb leader, Momcilo Krajisnik, told Bosnian Serb TV late Thursday that a deal had been struck, under which the Serb weapons would be put under outside control rather than withdrawn.
Holbrooke, the U.S. envoy, shuttled from Belgrade, where he met for 11 hours with Milosevic overnight, to Zagreb for meetings with Croatian President Franjo Tudjman, and on to the western Bosnian city of Mostar on Thursday for talks with Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic.
Holbrooke's plans call for the Muslim-led government and its Croat allies to get 51 percent of Bosnia, and the Serbs, who now have about two-thirds, to get 49 percent. But there still is broad disagreement on who gets what land.
The future of Sarajevo is a key to the negotiations over territory. The government insists it must have all of the capital, while the Serbs, who have surrounded the city and held part of it since April 1992, want a piece.
Government and Croat forces advanced rapidly in western Bosnia this week, capturing a series of towns that likely would be given to them in a peace deal. The key towns of Jajce, Donji Vakuf and Bosanski Petrovac all have fallen. Bosnian radio reported the capture of another town, Kulen Vakuf.
Red Cross officials, meanwhile, said Thursday that about 8,000 Muslims are missing from Srebrenica, the first U.N. ``safe area'' overrun by Bosnian Serb troops in July.
Among those are 3,000 people, mostly men, who were seen being separated and arrested by Bosnian Serb troops as the city fell.
Srebrenica survivors have accused the Serbs of widespread war crimes, including mass killings of civilians and rapes.
Keywords:
INFOLINE
by CNB