Word: croatia
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...provocateur this time is Croatia's President, Franjo Tudjman, who announced in January that the 12,000 United Nations peacekeepers patrolling the cease-fire line along the Serb-occupied Croatian region of Krajina must leave the country beginning March 31, when the U.N. mandate expires. The soldiers have managed to keep the peace in Croatia since being deployed there in the beginning of 1992, but Tudjman has concluded that they mainly serve to protect the Serbs' hold on Krajina. If the troops depart, there will be nothing to prevent the 105,000-man Croatian army and 40,000 Krajina Serbs...
...better hurry. Both Croatian and Krajina Serb forces are preparing to fight the moment the U.N. soldiers depart--or worse, even before they go. Croatia and Muslim-led Bosnia last week signed a military alliance intended to squeeze the Krajina and Bosnian Serbs. The Serbs, in turn, are digging in. "It is abundantly clear that military forces on both sides of the zone of separation are deepening their defensive positions," says Yasushi Akashi, the U.N. special representative in the region. Both sides are building bunkers, cutting trenches and moving heavy weapons into offensive positions...
Clearly, the best solution would be to renew the U.N. mandate so the peacekeepers can stay right where they are. Croatia objects on the ground that their presence merely legitimizes a Serbian occupation of Krajina, stealing away 27% of Croatian soil. "If we let the U.N. stay forever, we'll have another Cyprus, and that's unacceptable," says Tudjman's spokesman, Jozo Curic...
...easier to resolve cases of missing military men. Bosnian Cease-Fire Still Shaky In Bosnia the New Year's cease-fire brokered by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter seemed more elastic than ever. Renewed fighting broke out in the northwestern Bihac enclave, as rebel Muslims and Serbs from neighboring Croatia battled Bosnian government forces. The new violence came just as the new British commander of the U.N. troops in Bosnia, Lieut. General Rupert Smith, arrived in Sarajevo to take up his yearlong tour of duty. The Airborne Downed Overruling the recommendations of top military officers, Canadian Defense Minister David Collenette
...formations, a crack 660-man unit founded in 1968 whose members have taken part in many overseas peacekeeping assignments for the U.N. A contingent from the regiment is currently serving in Rwanda. All 660 Airborne soldiers are scheduled to ship out in April to join a U.N. operation in Croatia, but that deployment may now be in jeopardy...