The Daily Gazette, p.8A
6 January 1994.
By Samir Krilic
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — Serbs unleashed heavy artillery, anti-aircraft and sniper fire on Sarajevo on Wednesday in the worst bombardment residents could recall in months.
At least two people were killed and 32 wounded, four of them severely, said workers at the city’s two hospitals. That added to a toll of at least 31 dead and dozens wounded since the New Year. But Wednesday’s final toll could be much higher.
For the first time in almost 21 months of war, police were under orders to turn civilians back to their homes and clear the streets, Bosnian radio said. Shelling closed the airport, the lifeline of the airlift that keeps Sarajevo fed.
Military observers counted 1,535 Serb shells fired into the city, while the government forces fired only 56 in response, said Maj. Manuel Cabezas, a U.N. peacekeeping spokesman in Sarajevo.
The United Nations press office and the Bosnian army said shelling initially was heaviest in the northern part of Sarajevo, particularly Mount Zuc, and on Vogosca to the north. The shelling later moved to the center.
In the afternoon, Serb artillery positions in the north also pounded other parts of the city, using mostly mortars, howitzers and anti-aircraft cannons, the Bosniak-led Bosnian army’s first corps command said.
Anti-aircraft tracer and machine-gun bullets flew into tall buildings next to the Holiday Inn, the headquarters for most foreigners. The hotel’s Congress Hall was badly damaged by a direct hit.
The notorious “Sniper Alley” resounded with anti-aircraft fire, and sniper bullets rang across streets normally considered relatively safe. Almost no one was outside.
Associated Press photographer Peter Northall picked up a man severely wounded in the head and legs by a shell close to the battered Bosnian presidency building. The man, about 25 and in civilian clothes, died by the time Northall got him to a hospital.
Sarajevo was also without water and power after fighting Tuesday knocked out electric lines outside the capital.
U.N. spokesman Idesbald van Biesebroeck said the U.N. commander for Bosnia, Lt. Gen. Francis Briquemont, who recently has criticized world failure to stop the Bosnian war, was stepping down. He will be replaced by a Briton, Lt. Gen. Sir Michael Rose.
Aid blockages and continuing fierce battles have deepened gloom about whether any peace settlement is possible in a way that has left more than 200,000 dead or missing.
In Vienna, European Union mediator Lord Owen cast doubt on any overall peace agreement emerging from new talks scheduled in Geneva on Jan. 18.
He had attended talks between Bosniaks and Croats on ending their fighting. But the two warring factions could manage only to agree on a summit of their presidents in Germany on Saturday.
In Belgrade, the independent Studio B TV reported that Owen and Thorvald Stoltenberg, the U.N. envoy, completed talks with Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic and Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic.
In the talks, the Serbs said their agreement to give Bosniaks one third of Bosnia’s territory in a future peace settlement should be considered their last word and that the European Union was now expected to ensure the lifting of U.N. sanctions against Yugoslavia, the Belgrade-based Tanjug news agency said.
Britain, France, Spain and Canada have hinted they may withdraw their troops from the Bosnian peacekeeping force if there is no settlement soon. But a senior French military official on Wednesday downplayed that option.
Reklame
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