Word: mortars
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...once large Muslim population could have survived in Grbavica. During the long siege of Sarajevo, this modern metropolitan area had been a haunt of Serb bands like Vojislav Seselj's White Eagles and Zeljko ("Arkan") Raznatovic's Tigers, who used it as a base for snipers and mortar attacks on the government-held center. Muslims who failed to flee at the start of war in April 1992 found themselves trapped inside the enclave, facing death at the hands of "ethnic cleansers." In short order, the place was left almost entirely to the Serbs...
...sink--and setting out for the Serbs' Republika Srpska, newly recognized by the Paris deal. At night, convoys of army trucks trundle down the treacherous mountain slopes and haul out the insides of factories and military bases. The potential for new violence was underscored when two grenades and a mortar fired from the direction of Serb-held territory exploded in an unoccupied area of Sarajevo only minutes after the signing ceremony had flickered off TV screens. On the same day, Bosnian government forces shot at a French helicopter, and Croat soldiers clashed with mujahedin, Islamic volunteers fighting on the side...
...nature of the NATO mission--policing long, snakelike "zones of separation" between the warring factions--means that troops will never be far out of mortar and artillery range. Any Balkan soldier who chooses to will easily be able to fire a couple of shells at them. After doing so, however, he will have to move quickly to avoid being hit by NATO's sophisticated counter-artillery fire. A senior Army planner says, "We would expect to return artillery fire at the location where it's coming from almost before the round hits the ground...
CYRIL WINSICK WAS SERVING AS A forward spotter for a mortar crew when he was captured by German troops near the town of Aachen in October 1944. He spent much of the following winter being force-marched across Germany before he was liberated in April 1945. A half-century later, Winsick still can't speak of his ordeal without crying, but at least it did earn him one benefit: as a former pow, he was entitled to lifelong free medical care from the Department of Veterans Affairs. Or so he thought...
...WORLD HAS SEEN IT ALL BEFORE: a cease-fire is signed, the guns fall silent, hopes rise. Then somewhere in Bosnia a sniper's bullet or a mortar round or a tank attack sheds blood, and war begins again. Countless times since the start of the wars of Yugoslavia in 1991, a truce has been declared. Each time it has collapsed. Last week U.S. diplomats tried again, negotiating a cessation of hostilities that could take effect as early as Tuesday. But in contrast to the many failures of the past, there is a chance this one could last, clearing...