U.N. Puts Big Guns In Bosnia U.N. Troops, Weapons To Ring Sarajevo; U.S. Threatens Serbs With Airstrikes
In a major move to strengthen its forces in Sarajevo, the United Nations dispatched hundreds of combat troops armed with heavy weapons to the besieged capital Sunday as rebel Serbs launched attacks across Bosnia.
French tanks and British artillery and mechanized infantry were to be posted on strategic Mount Igman overlooking the city by today. Their deployment followed an escalating barrage of Bosnian Serb attacks on peacekeepers and U.N.-designated “safe areas” in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
The added weaponry substantially will increase the U.N. peacekeepers’ firepower in and around Sarajevo and, for the first time, will give them the force capable of challenging Bosnian Serb guns trained on the city.
The deployment of about 800 members of the recently created rapid reaction force appeared to signal a tougher stance by the United Nations, whose mission in Bosnia repeatedly has been humiliated and paralyzed. And it suggests that a confrontation looms with the Serbs, who will continue to out-gun and outman U.N. forces by a wide margin.
In a further show of resolve Sunday, the United States, Britain and France formally notified the Bosnian Serbs of their intent to launch major airstrikes and ground action against Serbian targets if the rebel forces attack any of the “safe areas.”
The warning was delivered by senior generals of the three Western allies during an extraordinary 1-1/2-hour meeting in the Serbian capital of Belgrade with the Bosnian Serb army commander, Gen. Ratko Mladic. Officials declined to say how Mladic responded.
The delivery of the allies’ warning, announced simultaneously in Washington, London and Paris, was billed as a follow-up to Friday’s meeting in London, where the allies - with tacit approval from Russia - agreed to launch aggressive military action to protect the “safe area” of Gorazde.
While the communique issued by the allies Friday had been criticized as vague and almost wavering and did not mention any “safe areas” except Gorazde, Sunday’s warning was precise, specifically mentioning all the so-called havens, including Sarajevo.
In the past, neither ultimatums nor shows of U.N. force have deterred the Bosnian Serbs. Sunday was no different: Defying the West’s warnings, Bosnian Serb forces, using tank fire and mortars, continued battering the Muslim enclave of Zepa, where numerous casualties were reported, and lobbed shells at Sarajevo, killing six civilians and wounding 35.
The most serious fighting was reported in the northwestern pocket of Bihac, another “safe area,” which was being punched from all directions by two Serbian armies and a renegade Muslim militia.
Late Saturday, the Serbs fired on a U.N. food convoy bringing flour to Sarajevo and on peacekeepers’ barracks, killing two French captains and wounding four other soldiers.
Within hours of that attack, the new European rapid reaction force was ordered on its first mission. The troops being deployed to Sarajevo boast 500 members of the French Foreign Legion with light tanks, two British artillery batteries with 105-millimeter guns and an infantry company with 16 cannon-mounted armored fighting vehicles. They also soon will receive 155-millimeter howitzers, French military sources said.
The key change is the range and power of the weaponry, both of which far outdistance the bulk of what the peacekeepers in Sarajevo now have.
“The caliber of the weapons will be bigger, the distances we will be able to strike will be increased and our firing now will be very precise,” said a senior French military officer.
In addition, the reinforcements, unlike most of the approximately 5,000 peacekeepers now stationed in the capital, are combat-ready.
Still, the Serbs make a formidable opponent and are armed with more than 280 heavy artillery pieces in the hills around Sarajevo.
And if the United Nations is to take more decisive action, at least as important as equipment and training is the political backbone to do so. That international resolve has been lacking thus far, and it remains to be seen whether the statements issued Friday by Western allied leaders, and reiterated Sunday, will be followed by more concrete action.
As for the allied ultimatum issued to Mladic on Sunday, it declared that if Bosnian Serb forces attack Gorazde, the allies will mount “substantial air actions” that, “if necessary, … will be at unprecedented levels.”
“They (the Bosnian Serbs) must realize that necessary action will be taken in response to attacks elsewhere (besides Gorazde), including in other ‘safe areas,”’ White House press secretary Mike McCurry said in Washington.
Defense Secretary William J. Perry said during an impromptu news conference in Washington that much of the allied air armada based in eastern Italy would be ready to go immediately if airstrikes are ordered.
U.S. and allied officials have said one of the first targets likely to be hit in any such action would be the Bosnian Serbs’ sophisticated air-defense system, which is made up of about 48 stationary and mobile surface-to-air missile launchers.