Word: morillon
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Ethnic Serbian crowds near the Bosnian town of Zvornik, 70 miles northeast of Sarajevo, block -- and eventually turn back -- a rescue convoy carrying the U.N. commander, General Philippe Morillon. The military procession was headed for the surrounded enclave of Srebrenica, where 15,000 Muslims await evacuation, thus far in vain. Despite a World Court ruling in Bosnia's favor against alleged aggression, and the debut slated this week of NATO warplanes to enforce what so far has been a meaningless ban on military flights above Bosnian territory, there remains scant international consensus to punish Serbia for refusing to recognize...
Face to face with the hungry Muslims in Srebrenica, watching as they grimly confronted death, waiting as they surrounded his vehicles for 36 hours, Morillon underwent a conversion. He walked off by himself, then returned to speak to the crowd from the balcony of the local post office, assuring them he would remain until help arrived. "I have decided to stay," he shouted through a megaphone, "to calm your anguish and try to save you." He proclaimed the post office his command post, called his 13-man escort to attention and, amid a burst of cheers, had the U.N. flag...
...standoff continued throughout the week. Serbian troops promised again to allow the convoy to proceed but each time halted it. In a radio message to his Sarajevo headquarters, Morillon termed the situation "unbearable" and said "people are dying right in front of me." On Friday, his frustration boiled over. He drove to the border and demanded an end to the stalling. He accepted Serbian terms that he travel without his escort of two Canadian armored personnel carriers and headed back to Srebrenica in his command car -- followed this time by the trucks of the relief convoy...
...their fire. Though residents and refugees joyously crowded around the huge white relief trucks, shouting and weeping, the shipment did not carry enough to provide for all of them. "We need to get another one in right away," said a spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. Meanwhile, Morillon began trying to talk the Serbs into allowing 2,000 sick and wounded citizens to leave...
...taking his stand in the snow of eastern Bosnia, Morillon turned up the world spotlight brightly enough to force Serbian leaders to reconsider. They backed down under all the attention and let the stalled supply convoy enter Srebrenica. But food and medicine will not save the town or its people from being overrun and "ethnically cleansed." Like the humanitarian efforts of the West throughout the country, Morillon's intervention provides a momentary respite but does nothing to rescue Bosnia from the fate the Serbs have decided...