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TIME: Almanac 1993
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TIME Almanac 1993.iso
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092192
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09219938.000
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1993-04-08
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THE WEEK WORLD, Page 15Beefing Up the Bosnian Brigade
Foreign troop commitments deepen after an unprotected U.N. convoy
is attacked
The last thing the 1,500 United Nations troops on duty in
Bosnia-Herzegovina needed was another lesson in what a thankless
task they face. They got one anyway, when two French soldiers
were killed and five more injured as their convoy, carrying
supplies from Belgrade, was raked by machine-gun fire near
Sarajevo's airport. The U.N. commander in Sarajevo, Egyptian
Brigadier General Hussein Ali Abdul-Razek, blamed the attack on
"irresponsible elements" among the Bosnian government troops
loyal to President Alija Izetbegovic. Abdul-Razek's deputy,
French Lieut. General Philippe Morillon, called it "a clear
provocation by people who are enormously upset by the
possibility of peace and determined to remain at war."
The deaths gave new urgency to plans announced last week
by U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali to increase as
much as fivefold the strength of the peacekeeping force. The new
troops, to be supplied by NATO countries other than the United
States, would be deployed to protect U.N. convoys and help get
detainees on both sides out of the war zones. For its part,
Washington praised Croatia for interdicting an Iranian plane
carrying weapons intended for Bosnian Muslim forces, and also
urged a ban on military flights, to thwart Serbian bombing runs
in Bosnia.
The U.N.'s broader tasks become crucial as winter
approaches with a cold promise of more agony for civilians
pinned down in Sarajevo, Goradze and other towns in the war-torn
republic. But movement toward an end to the hostilities remains
fitful at best. Former U.S. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance and
former British Foreign Secretary Lord Owen, co-chairmen of the
peace conference on Yugoslavia, were encouraged that leaders of
all three Bosnian factions agreed to meet in Geneva this week.
With the spirit of compromise long since bludgeoned by
atrocities on all sides, however, no agreement at the table is
likely. And the deadly frustrations of the U.N. forces augur
even worse for implementing anything on the ground.