Word: airlifters
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President Clinton ordered a massive "round-the-clock" military airlift to begin in Rwanda, where the refugee disaster is claiming a life a minute. After private aid experts had charged the White House with failing to understand the magnitude of the crisis, Clinton said the U.S. would build an "airlift hub" in neighboring Uganda for the 24-hour-a-day shipment of supplies to the region. He also called on the United Nations to send "a full contingent" of peacekeepers to provide security for civilians who want to return to their homeland. "The flow of refugees across Rwanda's borders...
...Israel's darkest hour, Richard Nixon, heedless of the consequences, ordered the Defense Department, over their objection, to start a 24-hour-a-day emergency airlift which Prime Minister Golda Meir claimed was invaluable in turning the tide of the battle, Only the Portuguese and the Dutch supported him (Prime Minister Heath refused the use of British airbases), but his resolve did not waiver. And the consequences were severe: the oil embargo, doubling of gasoline prices and a fall in the polls from which he never recovered. But President Nixon had the satisfaction of doing what was right...
...three options before Bush: the first was an expanded peacekeeping operation, with about 3,500 American troops joining the Pakistanis participating only in a supporting role. A second was an expanded peacemaking operation (distinguished from peacekeeping because in some circumstances the troops could shoot first); the U.S. would supply airlift and other support, but no ground troops. The third option, unexpectedly prepared by the Pentagon, was to send in a whole U.S. division under U.N. auspices but American command and control. Bush surprised everyone by immediately choosing that option. His reasoning: only an all-American force could go in quickly...
...resolve the civil war in Bosnia has turned into a hare-tortoise race. With more than two- thirds of the former Yugoslav republic under their control, Serb nationalists continued to drive eastward, occupying about one new village a day, toward Muslim Srebrenica. A U.N.-sponsored relief effort to airlift the ill and injured out of Srebrenica collapsed when Serb gunners shelled mission helicopters, killing...
...starving eastern town of Cerska, for example, Muslim foragers approached the airlift pallets at risk of being picked off by waiting Serb gunners. Coincidentally or not, Serb forces mounted withering attacks throughout the region, forcing thousands of civilians into frigid mountain terrain. Despite the airlift's pressure on the advancing Serbs to move pre- emptively, U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher insisted that "we have no indication" it sparked the rout. The United Nations Commissioner for Refugees, however, raised the specter of a Serb "massacre" of Muslims. At week's end Serb commanders offered to allow safe passage to fleeing...