Yugoslav Army Active in Bosnia, U.N. Officers Say

Serb-led Yugoslavia is flouting U.N. sanctions and deploying troops to neighboring Bosnia-Herzegovina, U.N. officers confirmed Friday.

Yugoslav army paratroop units are routinely engaged in hostilities in Bosnia, Capt. Jantora Strandas of Norway reported, underscoring recent U.N. claims that the international community is doing too little to stop the war that is ravaging Bosnia and endangering foreign peacekeepers.

His confirmation refutes contentions by Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic and other Belgrade officials that they have not supported Bosnian Serb forces, which have attempted to carve out a Greater Serbia by seizing control of 70% of Bosnia’s territory.

It also undermines demands put forward this week by Serbian leaders for the lifting of sanctions, imposed 19 months ago on Belgrade for the violent partition of Bosnia.

Sarajevo radio reported heavy artillery attacks by Bosnian Serb forces that have been besieging the shattered capital from the surrounding heights for 21 months.

Belgian Gen. Francis Briquemont, commander of the U.N. Protection Force in Bosnia, lodged a sharp protest with the Bosnian government and Serbian rebel forces for the upsurge in fighting.

Eyewitness reports from U.N. observers and local residents have confirmed the long-term presence of Yugoslav army paratroopers and vehicles in northern and eastern Bosnia, Strandas said in an interview at the U.N. base in Pancevo, near Belgrade.

His remarks follow a scathing denunciation of U.N. operations by Briquemont, who has resigned and will leave Bosnia by the end of this month.

Several Security Council resolutions aimed at stopping the war in Bosnia have been ignored, such as threats to launch NATO air strikes against Serbian artillery besieging Sarajevo or using air power to punish violators of a no-fly zone over Bosnian airspace.

To illustrate his point that the U.N. Protection Force is powerless against Serbian intransigence, Strandas pointed to 11 German-made Leopard tanks, the most powerful military hardware that U.N. commanders have tried to deploy anywhere in the world.

For three months, the tanks have stood idle in an open shed, the Norwegian captain said.

Bosnian Serb leaders reneged on a pledge to allow the Leopards to cross front lines to protect U.N. troops on a mission to Tuzla, a Bosnian government stronghold in the northeast surrounded by Serbian forces.

The Leopards “are vital for opening the Tuzla airport,” which will provide an important lifeline of emergency relief for the 200,000 inhabitants trapped in the city.

The United States has reacted coolly to a request from France for air support for ground forces dispatched to secure the air field.

“It should have taken the Leopards three hours to get to Tuzla,” Strandas said.

Instead, the Serbian ban has left the Nordic contingent with little choice but to escort the tanks on “the long march,” a three-day rail journey from Pancevo, through Hungary, Austria and Italy, a sea voyage across the Adriatic to Croatia and then a drive through disputed territory in central Bosnia, where Muslims are battling Croatian forces for control.

To make matters worse, Strandas said, the Belgrade government was seeking up to $1 million in return for allowing the tanks to cross the Yugoslav frontier.

“We are stupid enough to pay,” said the 37-year-old veteran of international relief operations from the Persian Gulf War to Afghanistan.

He said the payment amounted to “extortion” by Serbs to get hard currency for the cash-strapped country, which has been devastated by footing the bill for nearly three years of war and by the U.N. sanctions.