THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, June 6, 1994 TAG: 9406060047
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A8 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: 940606 LENGTH: SARAJEVO, BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA
The attack by Sen. Joseph Biden on Yasushi Akashi, the U.N. special envoy to the former Yugoslavia, came during a visit to the Bosnian capital by Biden, D-Del., and Republican Sens. Robert Dole and John Warner.
{REST} Biden and Dole, the Senate minority leader, are strong supporters of exempting the Muslim-led Bosnian government from a U.N. arms embargo and of more forceful NATO intervention against the Bosnian Serbs. Warner, a member of the Armed Services Committee, opposes lifting the embargo, saying that would lead to more fighting.
The three senators met President Alija Izetbegovic and other Bosnian government leaders before flying to Normandy for the D-Day anniversary.
Fighting persisted in central Bosnia on Sunday, and a boycott by the government appeared to have scuttled efforts to hold cease-fire talks in Geneva.
The government refused to take part in the talks, originally scheduled to begin Thursday, claiming the presence of a few Serb stragglers around the Muslim enclave of Gorazde violated an agreement to pull out.
Akashi said he would make ``one last assessment'' of whether Serbs had pulled out of the exclusion zone around Gorazde by Monday morning.
``It has been a real see-saw game,'' Akashi said. ``I hope we have had enough gymnastics and we will get down to serious negotiations tomorrow.''
Serb forces were to have pulled back from Gorazde six weeks ago under a NATO ultimatum and the threat of airstrikes.
Any airstrikes would have to be authorized by Akashi. His refusal to do so, despite requests from U.N. commanders, has led to criticism from officials in the United States and elsewhere.
``I have no respect for his judgment,'' Biden said. ``I consider him an impediment. I believe we should be using airstrikes much more aggressively.''
Biden criticized ``idiotic rules of engagement,'' such as the requirement that a U.N. spotter identify the weapon firing at U.N. troops before airstrikes can be called.
Dole, the driving force behind a nonbinding Senate resolution last month urging the lifting of the arms embargo on Bosnian troops, said it was fitting to be in Bosnia, site of Europe's bloodiest conflict since World War II, at the time of the D-Day commemorations.
``Little did I think that such evils as concentration camps and ethnic cleansing would resurface, and such brutal aggression would go unchallenged in the heart of Europe,'' said Dole, a World War II veteran.
``I believe the American people would support U.S. policies that would allow the people of Bosnia to defend themselves.''
Warner disagreed, saying lifting the arms embargo on the Bosnian government would only lead to more killing, because Serb-dominated Yugoslavia would increase its support for Bosnian Serbs.
Izetbegovic said any cease-fire agreement cannot translate into a ``freezing of (battle) lines.''
After losing control of 70 percent of Bosnia to the Serbs in two years of fighting, government troops recently have begun chipping away at enemy gains. Izetbegovic's comments reflected the Muslim-led government's reluctance to reach any agreement on territorial division while its troops are gaining ground.
A plan proposed by international mediators would give Bosnian Muslims and Croats 51 percent of the country and the Serbs 49 percent. Dole criticized the Clinton administration for backing the plan, saying, ``the United States should not be endorsing any of these percentage arrangements.''
{KEYWORDS} BOSNIA SARAJEVO by CNB