European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 01, 1995, Darmstadt, Hesse \ Page 4 the stabs and stripes bosnian crisis Friday. September 1,1995 bomb from Page 1 Welcome earlier in Naples adm. Leighton w. Smith jr., the nato commander Over seeing the airstrike released videotape of damage inflicted by wednesday s bombing reminiscent of footage allies showed during the persian Gulf War he said 90 targets were attacked and that the 300 nato sorties hobble d the serbians air defences. . Spokesman it col. Chris Vernon said most serbian communications sys terns radar and anti aircraft systems near Sarajevo and several command posts were destroyed wednesday. Other officials said . Artillery fire destroyed 23 serbian guns and ammunition site around the capital. In another development the state department thursday nailed As a procedural breakthrough an agreement by ser Bian and bosnian serbian officials to form a joint delegation to negotiate peace. The breakthrough Long sought by Western diplomats occurred during talks in Belgrade on wednesday involving serbian officials we now believe there has been an important procedural breakthrough for peace state department spokesman Nicholas Burns said he noted that ser Bian president Slobodan Milosevic has accepted a plan drawn up by Western mediators As the basis for future negotiations. A key element of Western plan is bosnian serbian withdrawal from about 30 per cent of the territory they have seized Over the past three years in Croatia thursday . Assistant Secretary of state Richard Holbrooke said his peace initiative was moving ahead but he warned of jetting expectations get too details of the . Peace plan have not been made Public som published reports say it entails a confederation of bosnian serbs and serbian dominated Yugoslavia. In Bonn thurs Day bosnian prime minister Haris Silajdzic pronounced such a confederation to be out of the question and his opposition was echoed by Germany and France. At his news conference in Naples Smith said Spanish f-18s, . Air Force flies us Marine f-18s, . Ac-130gunships and . F-16s were among the aircraft participating. French and dutch planes also flew sorties. Smith also said planes were devoting considerable Effort to finding two French airmen who parachuted fro their burning Jet a French Mirage Jet was Sho Down by bosnian serbian gunners Over Pale on wednesday. There were unconfirmed reports that bosnian serbs had captured them meanwhile a Span ish defense ministry spokesman said thursday the Spanish government was at tempting to verify the authenticity of bos Nian serbian to footage showing three Spanish eur monitors killed a Day after the same television reported them killed by nato airstrikes Over serbian held territory in Bosnia. The serbs said the three spaniards and two other eur officials were killed by a nato bomb. A serbian woman walks through the debris of her Home destroyed in a bombing wednesday in Vidrick Bosnia and Herzegovina. Nato action cheers Many but it s Long Road to peace by juy. Apple or. New York time Washington when he Learned of the intensive nato air strikes on bos Nian serb positions around Sarajevo the president of Bosnia s Muslim dominate government Ahja ize Begovic told re porters the world has finally done whatsit should have done a Long Long time no doubt Many agreed with him not Only his own countrymen but also people of other nationalities around the world who have been horrified for More than three years by Pic Tures of Muslim civilians maimed or killed by bosnian serbian artillery an mortars. Radovan Karadzic the bosnian serbian Leader has Long since earned a International reputation As a heartless bully. But the satisfaction generated by see ing a bully s nose bloodied is one thing. Keeping him off the playground is another thing altogether. And that is the underlying goal of president Clinton s new policy supported with varying degrees of enthusiasm by the other nato countries not Only to eliminate the bosnian serbs capacity to Shell Sarajevo again by Haking out their gun positions ammunition dumps command posts and radar installations but also to Force them even against their will to the bargaining table. It is Likely to succeed in the View of Balkan experts Only if several Tough conditions Are met 1. Karadzic a hard Man finally concludes that fighting on will Cost him land in the Long run. O 2. President Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia who has surreptitiously sent weapons of All kinds to the Karadzic forces while sounding like the voice of moderation cuts off the flow of War Materiel and works for peace. 3. Nato attacks continue until the bosnian serbs sit Down to negotiate and the West stands ready to take further action if any of the parties tries to filibuster the talks nato and the United nations will also have to decide what to do if negotiations produce a peace agreement and some or All of the parties cheat in carry ing it out. Cheating would not be hard in an Accord that would inevitably involve delicate local transfers of Power and of populations. Still students of the Region greeted the news of the bombing warmly. It s about time said Warren Zim Merman a former . Ambassador to Yugoslavia who has often criticized Clin ton s policy. I Hope we have the perseverance to see it through when the Road gets Rocky As it will. This administration has a bad habit of lighting up the congratulatory cigars far too Early achieving peace in the notoriously treacherous Balkans will be especially difficult if Allied losses become numer Ous. A. -. Clinton has shrunk from exposing american ground troops to combat in the former Yugoslavia fearing the Domestic political consequences. His commitment of a Large number of american aircraft tothe new raids perhaps 50 of the 60 planes involved also has risks. Hence the emphasis in the target list on serbian air defense radars. No course of action is without risks of course in a land of unpalatable choices. Even if the peace talks should take place even if they should work Clinton has pledged to Send troops to help police a settlement. But after years of diplomatic Flap Doo dle of changing policies and timid actions the moment came at last when there was no other option but wide rang ing military an article in he sept. 21 Issue of the new York review of books Zim Merman notes that Many unfulfilled ambitions remain in the Region. The croatians still want Eastern Slavonia Back or bits of Bosnia to compensate for its loss and the bosnian serbs want to keep the land they have seized rather than giving a third of it Back As foreseen in the new american peace proposal it is the bosnian however who May have the most to lose in the american initiative 5 Zimmerman says. With renewed arms commitments from islamic countries and the possibility of recapturing More land than the plan would give them they Are understandably More interested in fighting than Success in winding Down the War has seemed within reach before and today s Hope May prove to be just another chimera. But the events of this week clearly Mark a major turning Point in which a peace proposal has for the first time been linked to the widespread use of Force and the threat of More. Four in France end hunger strike after nato acts Vincennes France a French theater director ariane Monou Chine and three colleagues called off their monthlong hunger strike thursday As their Way of applauding Western nations decision to take a More aggressive strategy in Bosnia. The decision to give up the hunger strike came a Day after a visit from bosnian president Alija ize Begovic who told them to Start eating again. They had gone without food for 28 Days to draw the world s attention to Bosnia s plight on wednesday ize Begovic took time out from talks with French officials to visit Monou Chine s theatre Dusoleil East of Paris. Stop your strike. You have achieved your aim France has finally chosen an appropriate stance toward Bosnia Herzegovina he said just hours after nato jets and the . Rapid reaction Force unleashed bruising attack on bosnian serbs. The four began their strike aug. 4, following the serbs takeover in july of the . Safe areas of Sre. Renica and Zepa the hunger strikers appeared weak and tired wednesday and friends said some were Exon ending dizziness and vision problems. Initially Monou Chine and her theater friends just launched a petition collecting More than 10000 Signa Tures from artists and writers around the world calling on the West to use military Means to protect Bosnia. _ but they decided signatures began the hunger strike. They received two letters of support from French president Jacques Chirac and messages of thanks from Sarajevo but met mostly with indifference from the French Public. The group said thursday the decision to end the Nunger strike was not because of. Izet Begovic s visit but because the strikers goals had been reached and the West had finally matched words with action
