home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- THE WEEK, Page 25WORLDTrying to Lift the Siege of Sarajevo
-
-
- Bosnia's President calls for help as the capital becomes hell
- on earth
-
-
- What will it require, short of sending in the U.S. Air Force,
- to halt Serbian aggression in Bosnia-Herzegovina? Clearly it will
- take measures sterner than the U.N. economic sanctions imposed
- three weeks ago. Defiant Serb gunners last week turned the
- Bosnian capital of Sarajevo into hell on earth, killing at least
- 30 people and injuring hundreds more. Thousands of shells
- blasted buildings and crashed into streets, terrorizing the
- 300,000 remaining residents, who mostly cowered in basement
- shelters. Sarajevo TV broadcast what appeared to be a military
- radio message from Serbian General Ratko Mladic, intercepted
- less than two weeks earlier, commanding soldiers in the
- overlooking hills, "Burn it all!"
-
- In an appeal to President Bush from his bomb-battered
- office, Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic called for U.S. air
- strikes on the Serbian gun emplacements. "Force can be countered
- only by force," Izetbegovic declared. "Let them bomb those who
- are bombing us." Washington backed a U.N. Security Council
- resolution authorizing peacekeeping troops to reopen Sarajevo
- airport if a cease-fire is reached so that urgently needed food
- can be flown in. But the Bush Administration was reluctant to
- intervene directly, despite its concern that Serbian shelling
- might hit a major toxic-chemical plant north of Sarajevo and
- trigger an environmental disaster. Impatience with the Serbian
- onslaught is growing in the U.S. Senate. Says Senator Richard
- Lugar: "The time for drawing the line has come."
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-