Subject: BosNet REPORT - BAC: "... Wherever They're Practising Genocide, It's From: Nermin Zukic ------------------------------------------------------------------------ B o s N e t - Sept. 6, 1995 ======================================================================== Also available on Usenet as BIT.LISTSERV.BOSNET ________________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe send mail to DOC.IC.AC.UK, WITHOUT the subject: UNSUB BOSNEWS. Default format is set to DIGEST, if you have problems please contact moderator(s). ________________________________________________________________________ September 6, 1995 THIS WEEK IN BOSNIA-HERCEGOVINA MORE AIR ATTACKS. NATO carried out more bombing raids on Serb nationalists in Bosnia Tuesday, again striking at command, communications, and ammunition- storage centers. Among the targets believed hit: a vital communications tower in the Majevica hills near Tuzla, reportedly knocking out most phone and TV links to Pale, the Serb military headquarters. "The Bosnian government army lost hundreds of men in costly battles trying to capture Majevica early this year," notes Reuters. Targets in Lukavica and Serb-occupied Dobrinja were also believed hit. Serb officials claimed heavy damage and civilian casualties after Tuesday's attacks. American pilots involved in the mission told reporters they were glad to finally be taking action after months of standing by. "As far as I am concerned, wherever they're practicing genocide, it's my war," Lt. Paul Costello aboard the USS Roosevelt told Reuters. "Then war crosses all boundaries....Then it's a war about humanity." A UN spokesman said air strikes will continue until the heavy weapons ringing Sarajevo are removed. The UN is also demanding an end to attacks on all Bosnian "safe areas," freedom of movement for UN and aid workers, and unrestricted use of Sarajevo's airport. Tuesday's attacks came after the UN and NATO concluded that Serb nationalists had not withdrawn their heavy weapons from a 12.5-mile "exclusion zone" around the city. While Serb-nationalist-controlled television broadcast pictures of weapons being moved, UN officials said most of those weapons were simply transported to other sites within the zone -- not pulled back. In fact, many may have been moved to residential centers, according to Associated Press, to prevent NATO from bombing them. SERB RESPONSE. Serb nationalist commander Gen. Ratko Mladic Tuesday refused to pull back his weapons unconditionally. "If you bomb us we will defend ourselves,'' he told Reuters television. "The more they bombard us, the stronger we are.'' At least six shells were fired into Sarajevo Tuesday after the NATO bombing raids; a woman and young child were wounded. The UN Rapid Reaction Force fired several shells in response, according to BBC. "Sarajevo continues to be vulnerable," BBC reports. Although NATO air attacks appeared to have extensively damaged some military targets, most heavy weapons around the city remain intact, BBC said Wednesday morning. PAUSE. Tuesday's air strikes came after a four-day pause following initial attacks launched last week. Many had questioned whether the UN and NATO would pull back from their commitments to continue airstrikes until the threat to Sarajevo was lifted. On Saturday, there was no response when Serbs fired an 82- mm mortar into the city's Mojmilo neighborhood, wounding six people including two children. Top U.S. negotiator Richard Holbrooke reportedly pressed for a tough NATO policy during a late-night meeting of NATO ministers this weekend. He said later that all NATO member nations supported further airstrikes. However, NATO does not want to completely destroy the Serbian military capability in Bosnia, ABC News reported Tuesday. Instead, NATO is seeking a "military balance" favorable to an international "peace plan" that would divide Bosnia roughly in half. Western leaders adopted this policy despite the fact that Serb nationalist leaders stand accused of genocide and crimes against humanity in Bosnia. NATO Secretary-General Willy Claes says the Bosnian government has been warned not to "take advantage" of the situation while airstrikes are underway. `BLUE ROUTES' OPEN. The UN unilaterally reopened a road across Sarajevo's airport Sunday. This allows vehicles making the treacherous journey over Mount Igman to then drive directly into the city. "Children jumped in delight and adults cheered as trucks loaded with supplies trundled into Sarajevo for the first time in six months," AP described. "But the Igman road is little more than a dirt track, and the main roads in and out of Sarajevo are still in Serb hands." The Blue Routes have been opened briefly several times before during the 3.5-year siege of Sarajevo. However, this marked the first time that UN officials opened the road without seeking permission from encircling Serbs. When the road is closed, as it has been for most of the war, trucks and cars must stop in a suburb of the city. Access to Sarajevo is then possible only through a narrow tunnel under the airport -- so small that people walking through it cannot stand completely upright in some places. HARDSHIPS CONTINUE. Despite a tough new UN military policy in Bosnia, living conditions in Sarajevo are still markedly worse that last summer and earlier this year. The humanitarian airlift remains shut down; the city is still without any running water or natural gas for heating; and power is so scarce that residents only have electricity once every four or five nights (and not at all during the day). Neither the UN nor NATO have included restoration of utilities as part of their demands to end the threat of air attacks. FIGHTING IN BIHAC. Bosnian and Serb forces battled around Bihac in northwest Bosnia Sunday, according to the UN, although fighting lessened on Monday. Bihac, one of four "UN-declared safe zones" not overrun by Serb forces, had been under siege throughout the war until the neighboring Croatian army routed Serb nationalists in Krajina across the border. EU OBSERVERS SET FREE; FRENCH PILOTS' FATE STILL UNCLEAR. Five senior European Union officials, whom Serb television initially said had been killed during NATO air strikes last week, were in fact still alive and allowed to leave Serb-held territory after being detained for several days. Serbs later claimed to have captured a French pilot and navigator shot down over Bosnia last week; NATO has refused to comment. MEETING SET FOR GENEVA. Foreign ministers from Bosnia, Yugoslavia, and Croatia are scheduled to attend a meeting Friday chaired by top U.S. negotiator Richard Holbrooke. Yugoslavia (now Serbia and Montenegro) reportedly won the power to represent Bosnian Serbs in negotiations. "Politics in Bosnia is at a real turning point," Bosnian President Izetbegovic told reporters after a meeting in Turkey. "Maybe everything will take the road to peace." Last weekend, the Bosnian government had threatened to pull out of the meeting unless air strikes resumed in the face of Serb noncompliance with the NATO/UN ultimatum. Holbrooke cautions that many tough issues remain to be hashed out before there is hope for an agreement. Any such agreement, if reached, is likely to be "ugly for everybody," one local radio station reported. SEND E-MAIL SUBSCRIPTION REQUESTS to nebosnia-list-approval@world.std.com --The Bosnia Action Coalition (Mass./NH) ________________________________________________________________________ Opinions expressed/published on BosNews/BosNet-B do NOT necessarily always reflect the views of (all of the members of) Editorial Board, and/or moderators, nor any of their host institutions. ------------------------------ End of BOSNEWS Digest 388 *************************