The Washington Post
December 26, 1992
SARAJEVO, Dec. 25 – The commander of U.N. relief forces in Bosnia, in a glum Christmas discussion of prospects for peace in this war-torn republic, said today that his quarters were shelled twice in the past 24 hours and that only a “miracle” had prevented serious injuries.
“It’s clear that I have been targeted directly. . . . It was certainly to kill,” said French Maj. Gen. Philippe Morillon. “It was a very elegant manner to wish us a Merry Christmas.”
Morillon said several mortar shells — apparently fired from Bosnian government-held areas of Sarajevo — exploded at 6:35 a.m. within a few yards of his sandbagged residence. He said the bombardment wakened but did not injure him or visting Indian Lt. Gen. Satish Nambiar, the commander of all U.N. peace-keeping and support troops in the Balkans. A similar attack occurred Thursday, he said.
Morillon said he has demanded an investigation and explanation of the shelling from Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic. Morillon stressed that he was not accusing Izetbegovic or Bosnia’s Slavic Muslim-led government of ordering the attacks, but he said the shells might have been fired by local Muslim forces angry at what they consider U.N. inaction against Serb militia forces that have seized most of the republic in eight months of factional war.
At a Christmas press conference, the two generals gave one of the grimmest official assessments yet of the prospects for a swift and equitable peace in Bosnia — a downbeat message that suggested they believe the Western powers have waited too long to try to blunt Serb nationalist aggression here, that there is little that can be done now and that the West should make sure the same mistakes do not occur again.
“The actions that were taken {in Bosnia} were not the right ones,” said Nambiar. “They should have been more effective, but that’s history.” He added that U.N. action in Balkan-style hotspots “has to be taken in a preventive form rather than waiting for disaster to happen.”
Nambiar also reiterated his belief — disputed by some of his officers — that Western military intervention in the three-sided fratricidal war here would be a bad idea. He said such action might spell the end of U.N. relief operations that are keeping hundreds of thousands of civilians alive, escalate battlefield carnage in Bosnia and perhaps help it spread to other restive regions of the Balkans.
World outrage over Serb aggression in Bosnia reached a new peak this month with reports of mass rapes by Serb militia forces as they rolled over this former Yugoslav republic in a savage campaign that has left nearly 20,000 people dead and at least 1.3 million homeless, most of them Muslims. Aside from continuing to shell Sarajevo and its 350,000 besieged civilians day after day, the Serbs are pressing their “ethnic cleansing” campaign in other regions of the republic to rid them of Croats and Muslims.
The Serb behavior has prompted the United States, Britain, France and other NATO nations to take steps toward enforcing a U.N.-imposed “no-fly zone” over Bosnia, which could lead to the downing of Serb military aircraft and destruction of their bases.
But Nambiar said that intervention of any sort would jeopardize his troops — there are about 23,000 of them in Bosnia and neighboring Croatia — because their security depends on the cooperation of local commanders who could become “antagonistic” in the face of Western attacks on their forces. Although some U.N. officers argue that the Serbs would be foolish to attack U.N. ground troops, Nambiar said he believes that the “worst-case” scenario may be the likeliest one. “The alternative to what we are doing now is even more serious, because it will only cost more lives and prolong the conflict,” he said.
Nambiar acknowledged at the same time that his humanitarian operation in Bosnia is faltering. The five-month-old international airlift of desperately needed supplies into Sarajevo resumed three days ago after a hiatus of several weeks, but the Bosnian capital remains short of food, fuel and medicine. As winter advances, the death toll is expected to be driven up sharply by disease, malnutrition and exposure.
In northern Bosnia, most of which is controlled by Serb forces, the United Nations has been unable to deploy its relief troops because hard-line nationalist leaders there have refused to permit it. Relief convoys do not penetrate the region, and U.N. officials do not even have accurate estimates of the number of Muslims, Croats and other non-Serbs in need of aid there, although the figure is thought to be well over 100,000.
“I am not satisfied,” Nambiar said. “It would be utterly ridiculous for any of us to suggest that we are satisfied.” The best way to end the suffering, he said, is for the Serb separatist faction and the Bosnian government to reach a negotiated settlement. U.N. and European Community mediators have been trying to being that about for months, but the Serbs refuse to give up their newly won territory, while the outgunned Bosnian government refuses to capitulate and accept permanent partition of the republic.
