NEWS ANALYSIS : U.N. Impotence in Bosnia Undercuts Role

The U.N. special envoy to the former Yugoslavia was to meet today with U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali amid cries of outrage over a peacekeeping mission that many here increasingly regard as useless--or worse.

After repeated humiliations and failures, the mission’s role and future are in question, with the most fervent critics suggesting that the United Nations pack up and call it a day.

The United Nations’ evident impotence was underscored earlier this week when U.N. officials declined to call in NATO warplanes to punish Bosnian Serb rebels who shelled a Sarajevo suburb and flouted a long list of U.N. rules meant to protect the besieged capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Dispirited U.N. officials for the first time said publicly they could not--would not--protect Sarajevo, a designated “safe area,” because other diplomatic concerns were more important. The city of 380,000, it seemed, was being left to its fate.

Emboldened Bosnian Serbs reacted by launching mortar attacks, moving tanks into a weapons-exclusion zone and targeting civilians and peacekeepers with sniper fire.

On Thursday, a French peacekeeper was shot in the head in Sarajevo’s “sniper alley,” near where rebel Bosnian Serbs the day before fired antitank grenades on another French patrol in an armored personnel carrier.

The French have the largest contingent in the U.N. force and have hinted that they will withdraw if security cannot be improved.

U.N. officials argue that their troops are inadequately armed to enforce “safe areas,” deliver humanitarian aid and stop the fighting.

Fear of further angering or provoking the Bosnian Serbs often prevents what U.S. diplomats call “a more robust response” by the United Nations to punish the Serbs.

Consequently, there is little to discourage Bosnian Serbs from attacking again, analysts say.

Speaking at a meeting of mediators in Frankfurt, Germany, Richard Holbrooke, assistant U.S. secretary of state for European affairs, warned that unless the United Nations calls for air strikes by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the peacekeepers risk being driven out of Bosnia altogether.

To review the mission and its mandate, U.N. special envoy Yasushi Akashi will confer with the secretary general today in Paris.

The discussions are to determine what steps come next in a swiftly deteriorating war zone where “both sides are intent on fighting,” a U.N. spokesman in New York said.

Yet within the U.N. mission here, there is dissension and a sad admission that the 40,000-member force is barely able to carry out its most basic duties--including protection of its own men and women. Their movement is restricted. Their cars are hijacked. Their guns are stolen by armies of the warring factions.

And the disaster of the frustrated NATO air strikes ultimately undermines the U.N. mission’s foundation.

Lt. Gen. Rupert Smith, the U.N. commander for Bosnia, requested the NATO backup after Bosnian Serb shelling of Sarajevo claimed 11 lives. But he was overruled by U.N. officials who said they feared reprisals from Serbs against peacekeepers on the ground and repercussions for delicate peace talks involving the Croats and their Serb rivals.

Bosnia’s President Alija Izetbegovic, reacting earlier this week to NATO inaction, asked in a letter to Boutros-Ghali if U.N. resolutions meant to protect Sarajevo were “just paper tigers.”

“If they are still valid--do something,” he wrote. “If they are not valid, say this to the residents of Sarajevo and the world.”