Word: serb
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Serbs have shown exquisite calibration in cranking up the carnage to just below the point where the West will react. The war is about religious differences as well as territory and politics; it involves Serbian Orthodox, Bosnian Muslims and Croat Catholics. Serb militias now occupy 70% of Bosnia and Herzegovina, leaving only Sarajevo and isolated pockets in the hands of Bosnia's mainly Muslim government. Among the most desperate are the besieged Muslim towns in eastern Bosnia, near the frontier with Serbia. It was their plight that prompted Clinton to order the airdrops over the snow-covered town of Cerska...
Just hours after the first three U.S. C-130s dumped their cargo from 10,000 ft., Serb guns went into action. Artillery and mortars pounded dozens of small villages in the area, then followed up with tanks that blasted and set fire to the ruined houses and mosques. Thousands of civilians fled into the frozen countryside...
...drop zones in tightly surrounded enclaves only 5-to-10-miles wide, at night, in the poor weather and mountainous terrain of the region will be difficult, and there will be no trained personnel on the ground to help. Some of the aid could easily be stolen by Serb fighters or could fall in places where those who go to retrieve it might find themselves targets of snipers...
...negotiating table. Washington has, in effect, told Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic that if the U.S. is willing to risk its aircrews and planes, he can show up at the peace talks scheduled to begin this week in New York City, which he has refused to attend as long as Serb forces are shelling Bosnian cities. "The airdrops were taken in response to our view that there are Muslim towns in eastern Bosnia where you have very serious humanitarian problems," said a U.S. official. "This should be encouragement for the Bosnians to return to the talks." And by demonstrating that Washington...
Croatia has achieved a shaky independence since then, albeit one marred by episodes of urban shelling by Serb guerrillas. The Croats could conceivably have been motivated to carry out the attack hoping the Serbs would be blamed. But the Serbs have their own reason for staging the bombing -- or for doing it and hoping the Croats would be blamed. The announcement this week that the U.S. would soon start sending relief flights over Bosnia made it just as plausible that the blast might be a response by Serbs to a perceived tilt against their side. Six months ago, Serbian nationalists...