U.N. Commander in Bosnia Warns Serbian Strongman on Attacks

The commander of U.N. forces in Bosnia-Herzegovina warned Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic on Thursday that his people face a catastrophic escalation of the Balkan war, unless his Bosnian Serb allies halt a deadly offensive against Muslim civilians.

French Gen. Philippe Morillon said he was giving Milosevic 24 hours to make good on his assurances that he will try to influence Bosnian Serbs to stop blocking humanitarian aid to embattled Muslims and to halt their campaign to conquer the last few Muslim enclaves in eastern Bosnia.

Morillon declined to say what specific consequences he forecast. But he said he warned Milosevic he would take the matter to the U.N. Security Council if Serbs continue to “jeopardize” peace talks in New York by pressing their eastern Bosnian offensive.

That may have been an implied threat to recommend some kind of Western military intervention to force an end to the war that has killed more than 100,000 people in the past year.

Milosevic promised to summon Gen. Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb military leader, to Belgrade today and to pressure him to end the offensive closing in on the Muslim havens of Zepa and Srebrenica, Morillon said.

But the U.N. commander, who has been waging a personal battle against Serbian rebel aggression for the past week, noted that Milosevic offered only to use his “good offices, because he has no authority with the Bosnian Serbs.”

Asked why he put credence in the latest in what has been a long series of Serb promises to abide by U.N.-mediated agreements, Morillon said Milosevic shares his view that the nearly year-old war and negotiations to end it are at an extremely sensitive stage.

“We are in a very crucial period where things can go either for peace, which is what is really wanted, or for starting a new war that would be a catastrophe for all the population, not just in Bosnia-Herzegovina but for those here too,” Morillon said after meeting with the Serbian president for more than an hour.

Milosevic is widely believed to be the intellectual force behind the regionwide quest for a Greater Serbia--even though Serbian rebellions in Bosnia and Croatia, which have seized vast tracts for his expanded state, have been conducted by proxy. When stymied by surrogate political leaders, like Bosnian Serb warlord Radovan Karadzic, U.N. officials have appealed to Milosevic to use his influence for his own republic’s benefit.

Serbia and Montenegro, its sole remaining partner in the Yugoslav federation, have been staggering under harsh U.N. economic sanctions for their support of the Balkan bloodshed that began with wars in Slovenia and Croatia in 1991 and has since engulfed and virtually destroyed Bosnia.

Morillon’s warning of an expanded war may have been designed to convince Milosevic that he had more to lose if the Security Council decides to authorize military action or to tighten sanctions as punishment for the latest aggression.

It remained uncertain whether Milosevic was willing to push the Bosnian Serbs to stop blocking food and medicine deliveries to Muslim enclaves.

Karadzic has rejected a U.N. peace plan that would divide Bosnia into 10 ethnic provinces because Serbs would keep only about half of the territory they have conquered and “ethnically cleansed” of non-Serbs.

Bosnia’s Croat and Muslim communities have accepted the plan. Diplomatically speaking, this has isolated the Serbs and confronted them with a choice--of endorsing a division that they have deemed unacceptable or pressing on with the offensive to take the last few areas of Bosnia they covet.

Morillon also demanded that U.N. forces be allowed to evacuate wounded civilians to the Muslim stronghold of Tuzla and that U.N. military observers be allowed into the eastern combat zones to monitor the fighting.

Just getting out of Serbian-held Bosnian territory proved an all-day task for Morillon, as stormy weather prevented his travel by helicopter from his overnight base in Tuzla to Belgrade. Bosnian Serb gunmen blocked him for hours when he tried to leave Tuzla by road. Milosevic had to send a car to negotiate Morillon’s passage out of eastern Bosnia, U.N. sources here said.

While Morillon struggled to reach Belgrade, another senior U.N. official warned that Serb rebels were closing in on the last few Muslim enclaves, threatening “a whole new torrent of desperate, displaced people.” U.N. civilian affairs coordinator Cedric Thornberry said Serbs have been overrunning “village after village” and that the last sizable Muslim town in the region, Srebrenica, is in danger of falling within two weeks.