Bosnia's Serbs know how to say "No." First, they rejected an international plan to end Bosnia's bitter war with a division of territory. Then, they shot at United Nations relief flights and convoys moving supplies into Sarajevo and resumed their sniping at civilians in the city. Last week, when they sneaked into a U.N. collection site and stole back a tank and heavy weapons, the abundant patience of the U.N. Protection Force was finally exhausted. NATO planes responded with strikes against Serb heavy weapons in the 12-mile exclusion zone around Sarajevo.
The Serbs' defiance is not without cost. Although the airstrikes were sized more to save face than do real damage, Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic -- who had provided his Bosnian Serb neighbors with substantial material support throughout the 28-month war -- announced that even he was fed up with the stubborn Bosnian Serb leadership and cut off all ties. But the jury is still out on whether Milosevic is truly prepared to abandon his Bosnian brethren. U.N. commanders in Bosnia remain unwilling to support a sustained campaign of airstrikes. And the U.S.-led international "contact group" that crafted the spurned plan is divided over whether to lift the arms embargo that handicaps the Bosnian government on the battlefield. With a wary international community running out of peace plans and growing tired of backing an expensive U.N. mission that seemingly gets nowhere, "No" could yet prove a winning answer.
