Nato Ready To Renew Airstrikes Against Serbs Commander’s Refusal To End Sarajevo Siege Draws Response
Angered again by Bosnian Serb defiance, NATO early today vowed to renew aerial bombings “at any moment” unless the rebel separatists begin lifting the siege of Sarajevo.
The threat came in response to the Bosnian Serb army commander’s refusal to withdraw heavy weaponry from around Sarajevo and hours after a grenade attack in the Bosnian capital wounded six residents.
“The NATO military commanders are authorized to resume airstrikes at any moment,” NATO Secretary General Willy Claes said following a nine-hour meeting of the Western alliance’s ambassadors in Brussels to debate whether to renew bombing of Bosnian Serb positions. The meeting had been scheduled to last 90 minutes.
“NATO military commanders are pursuing for a brief period - I’m saying a brief period - the suspension of airstrikes in order to determine if the conditions of the United Nations have begun to be implemented by the Bosnian Serbs.”
The defiance by Bosnian Serb army commander Gen. Ratko Mladic jeopardized a fragile peace process that was just beginning to make progress.
Reiterating U.N. demands, the 16 NATO ambassadors ordered the Serbs to halt attacks on Sarajevo and other “safe areas”; withdraw all heavy weapons from within 12-1/2 miles of the capital; give freedom of movement to U.N. personnel; and reopen the Sarajevo airport, which the Serbs closed in April in an effort to block food and humanitarian aid.
Asked how long the Serbs have to comply, U.S. Ambassador to NATO Robert Hunter said: “Let me put it this way: If I were Mladic and company, I wouldn’t be sleeping well tonight, thinking I had a lot of time to play with.”
On Saturday, Bosnian Serb official Bozidar Zucurevic said he would not release five European Union monitors until NATO stops its “criminal attacks,” Serbian television reported in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. If the report is true, the men, who were originally reported to have been killed, have become the first hostages in the current crisis.
In a stormy, 14-hour meeting with the region’s senior U.N. military commander earlier Saturday, Mladic refused to accept U.N. demands to remove his big guns from around Sarajevo and instead set his own conditions.
Mladic told French Gen. Bernard Janvier that he would retire his weapons only if the Bosnian government army pulled back theirs.
Peace negotiator and U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke, briefing NATO ambassadors at the Brussels meeting, branded Mladic’s response as insulting. Holbrooke argued for continued airstrikes, a NATO official said.
Janvier and NATO southern commander Adm. Leighton Smith met for two hours Saturday at the Zagreb airport, where Smith had traveled specifically to confer with Janvier and analyze the Mladic response.