U.N. Chief Seeks Troops to Avert Strife in Macedonia

Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali urged the Security Council on Wednesday to dispatch 750 troops and police officers to Macedonia to help prevent the bloody Yugoslav ethnic conflict from exploding into a Balkans war.

In a report obtained by The Times, Boutros-Ghali recommended the deployment of the soldiers and police officers along Macedonia’s western border with Albania and northern border with Serbia. The council is expected to discuss the report today and act on it within a few days.

The report reached the Security Council on the same day that it condemned the latest escalation of the terror in Sarajevo. In a unanimously approved statement, envoys said they are “particularly alarmed by reports that the Serb militia . . . are forcing the inhabitants of Sarajevo to evacuate the city.”

“If such attacks and actions continue,” the statement said, “the Security Council will consider, as soon as possible, further measures against those who commit or support them.”

The secretary general based his Macedonia proposals on the findings of a recent U.N. military mission to Macedonia, a former Yugoslav republic. He said that Macedonia fears invasions by both Serbia and Albania. A small U.N. deployment, Boutros-Ghali said, would help Macedonia, Serbia and Albania “make safe passage through a potentially turbulent and hazardous period.”

Any Macedonia unit would augment the U.N. peacekeeping force of more than 20,000 now monitoring the cease-fire line in Croatia and trying to protect relief supplies in Bosnia.