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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Nato’s Request For Airstrikes Denied Bosnian Premier Blasts U.N. For ‘Capitulating’ To Serbs

Liam Mcdowall Associated Press

NATO wanted to bomb a Serb airfield in Bosnia. The United Nations said no. In a single day, the disarray of the world’s approach to Bosnia was exposed - and it’s a rift likely to be exploited by Serbs.

Bosnian Premier Haris Silajdzic said Thursday the U.N. decision amounted to “capitulation.”

U.N. reluctance to call for airstrikes is nothing new in Bosnia. But the latest dispute, coming only days after Serbs released their final U.N. hostages, is expected to embolden Serbs, who have been pressed hard this week by a government offensive around Sarajevo.

The Serbs claim to have received a U.N. promise that there will be no more airstrikes. Serbs responded to NATO airstrikes May 25 and 26 by taking more than 370 U.N. hostages.

U.N. officials denied they had promised an end to airstrikes in order to get their peacekeepers back.

After allowing one aid convoy to reach Sarajevo on Wednesday, the first in a month, Serbs suspended permission for aid to pass into the city on Thursday. U.N. officials said Serbs also shot at three U.N. convoys on the only land route into Sarajevo, the perilous road over Mount Igman southwest of the capital, but no one was injured.

Recent government advances appear to have been halted, and Serbs claim the Bosnian offensive north of Sarajevo has been crushed. But Bosnian army commanders appear determined to break, or at least ease, the three-year-old Serb siege around the capital this summer.

A rocket struck western Sarajevo on Thursday, killing a child and wounding four other people. It wasn’t immediately known who fired the rocket.

NATO called for an airstrike late Tuesday after it spotted two Serb planes near Banja Luka, a Serb stronghold in northern Bosnia. Three weeks ago, a U.S. plane was shot down not far from Banja Luka, and its pilot, Capt. Scott O’Grady, was rescued six days later. O’Grady was participating in a NATO mission to enforce a no-fly zone over Bosnia.

NATO commander Adm. Leighton Smith requested permission for NATO planes to strike the Serb planes’ base but was turned down by the U.N. commander for former Yugoslavia, French Lt. Gen. Bernard Janvier.

Janvier “saw no reason to do it,” said the top U.N. official for the region, Yasushi Akashi.

In the past, the U.N. has been sharply criticized for its reluctance to call in NATO air power. Just last month, U.S. officials criticized the United Nations for rejecting airstrikes after shelling killed 10 people in Sarajevo.

In Naples, Italy, NATO spokesman Jim Mitchell declined to comment on the dispute.

Chris Gunness, a U.N. spokesman in Zagreb, Croatia, said there were three criteria for calling in airstrikes: a violation of a ban on heavy weapons around Sarajevo, attacks on U.N.designated “safe areas,” or attacks on U.N. personnel. He said none of those applied Tuesday.

Gunness said NATO can go after aircraft violating the no-fly zone without asking for U.N. permission.

There is concern that Serb aircraft could be used to bomb Bosnia’s mostly Muslim “safe areas” - Gorazde, Srebrenica and Zepa in the east, Tuzla and Bihac in the north, and Sarajevo.