Word: nato
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Desperate Bosnian government soldiers in Zepa, the second Muslim "safe area" to come under Serb attack, commandeered 370 U.N. peacekeepers' weapons and threatened to take them hostage unless NATO staged airstrikes to protect the town.Rebel Serbs, who perfected the "human shield" tactic in previous standoffs with international troops, said they would respond to any NATO airstrikes by shooting at Ukrainian peacekeepers in a base they already control. (NATO planes made a show of flying over Zepa for several hours Sunday but the U.N. has not requested their presence since.) The Serbs, who pressed to within a mile of Zepa today...
...Grady shoot-down came in the midst of the U.N. peacekeepers' hostage crisis, and sources told TIME that here too Milosevic proved his usefulness. Following two NATO air strikes, the Bosnian Serbs had detained more than 370 U.N. peacekeepers and taken them to various locations, chaining some to potential targets of further air attacks. On the morning of June 2, Milosevic told Frasure that, while his action had nothing to do with the sanctions negotiations, he had acted to "save the national pride of Serbia." According to notes of the meeting, he declared that "taking hostages ... is like shooting someone...
...Bosnian Serbs probably knew which American pilots were flying when they shot down O'Grady on June 2. The Bosnian Serb antiaircraft batteries, whose communications U.S. intelligence has been monitoring, may have intentionally targeted O'Grady and his wingman, Captain Bob Wright, because the two had taken part in NATO air attacks on Bosnian Serb military targets. "They knew who Basher 51 and Basher 52 were," says a Pentagon official, referring to the call signs for O'Grady and Wright. "We think they specifically wanted to take these planes...
Radar-jamming planes now fly with NATO air patrols over Bosnia, and pilots take evasive maneuvers to avoid being fired upon. But to eliminate the threat, nato planes would have to attack the air-defense network, a step the alliance is not prepared to take. As long as the air defenses are allowed to operate, the nato allies should brace themselves for more pilots being shot down...
Some 27,000 Muslims fled the U.N. designated "safe area" of Srebrenica after it was captured bythe Bosnian Serb army. Despite numerous threats,NATO bombing runs, and an attempt by 400 Dutch peacekeepers to protect the city's southern edge, the U.N. could not keep the Serbs at bay. Seeking protection, some 2,000 civilians have assembled at the tiny U.N. outpost at Potocari, north of the city, and the Dutch troops are attempting to regroup around the area. There was no word on the fate of 30 Dutch hostages taken by Serb forces over the weekend. Srebrenica...