ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Thursday, January 11, 1996             TAG: 9601110100
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL   PAGE: A-3  EDITION: METRO 
DATELINE: SARAJEVO, BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA
                                             TYPE: ANALYSIS 
SOURCE: LIAM McDOWALL THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

BOSNIANS AREN'T SURE NATO CAN HELP THEM

NATO TROOPS can protect themselves, but internal violence in Bosnia goes on as before.

The muscular NATO-led force that has taken over the old U.N. role of enforcing peace in Bosnia is likely to defeat any force that takes aim at its soldiers.

What Bosnians wonder, after a Sarajevo streetcar shelling killed a woman Tuesday, disappearances in Serb-held areas and trouble in Mostar, is whether NATO can protect ordinary people.

Three weeks into its mission, the NATO-led force is running into challenges similar to those that plagued the much-maligned, underfunded United Nations force in Bosnia.

NATO rejected Bosnian government calls to punish Bosnian Serbs for the attack on the streetcar, saying Wednesday it was an isolated incident with no official rebel backing.

It was the worst cease-fire violation since an Oct. 12 truce by Bosnia's warring factions, who signed a U.S.-brokered peace agreement in Paris last month.

NATO officials claim their 60,000 troops - moving in to enforce a signed peace and much better armed than the U.N. peacekeepers who had no peace to keep - are different from the blue U.N. helmets.

U.S. Defense Secretary William Perry told Congress that the NATO-led force would be ``the biggest, meanest dog in town.''

But while NATO has no doubt it can protect its own, Bosnians are not sure the toughness will save them.

``As they did with the U.N., the Serbs are testing the patience and will of NATO troops to do anything,'' said Efrem Kulenovic, 69. If NATO fails the test, he said, ``we can forget their ability to protect us - and themselves. It will be U.N. impotence all over again - the helmets will just be a different color.''

On Tuesday, a Serb shell tore through a Sarajevo streetcar, killing one woman and wounding 19 people. It was the worst attack since a cease-fire took hold in Bosnia on Oct. 12, leading to a peace accord signed Dec. 14.

Last week, Bosnian Serbs released 16 civilians they had detained. The release was a result of diplomatic pressure from Washington, Europe and Serbia - not NATO guns.

The NATO-led force also has not solved the divisions of bitterly contested Mostar, where a Croat and a Muslim have died in recent shootings and tensions are high.

NATO spokesmen say they can - and will - get increasingly tough with any assailant.

But NATO has fixed strictly military goals and timetables that must be met, and is reluctant to bring up other issues that could jeopardize Bosnian Serb compliance.

NATO spokesmen characterize incidents such as the streetcar attack as murder or terrorism, and abductions as common crime. This, they say, is not their business.

LENGTH: Medium:   64 lines
ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC:  Chart by AP: Mission in Bosnia.