Word: serb
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Those were the reflections of Ferid Durakovic the day after a Serb mortar shell landed near his food store in Sarajevo last week, killing 43 people and wounding more than 80. Others recalled hands and feet tossed among odd bits of clothing, torsos strewn amid fresh vegetables, wet scraps of flesh clinging to the stone walls of nearby buildings. It was another savage attack on a city that has seen too many, and everyone in Sarajevo knew it would go unavenged, like all the rest...
Earlier in the summer the Western allies had warned unequivocally that a Serb attack like the one last Monday would provoke a massive response. But previous NATO bluster had led Serbs and Muslims alike to conclude that the alliance was all bark and no bite. Even after the shell had hit Sarajevo, vacillation appeared to be the likely outcome as the U.N. insisted on sifting the evidence to make sure the Bosnian Serbs were indeed the culprits. Then bad weather and a protective shift of British peacekeepers further delayed the nato attacks. As the hours ticked away, it seemed...
When the response finally came, however, it was just what NATO had threatened. Shortly after 2 a.m. Wednesday, the first sortie of planes began bombing Bosnian Serb positions around Sarajevo. Artillery units of the rapid-reaction force, a multinational contingent assigned to protect U.N. convoys and peacekeepers, joined the attack. nato planes also struck Bosnian Serb targets near Gorazde and Tuzla, two other U.N. "safe areas." The warplanes focused first on the Bosnian Serbs' sophisticated air-defense network. Then they turned to ammunition depots and factories in Lukavica and Vogosca, surface-to-air missile sites throughout Bosnia, and the Bosnian...
...Tuesday morning, consensus for a retaliatory attack had formed among the nato allies. But U.S. officials knew they faced a major difficulty. What about Holbrooke and his diplomatic team, which was getting ready to lobby Milosevic? If NATO launched air strikes, would Milosevic, the Serb strongman, react with anger and dismiss Holbrooke's overture? After conferring on the phone, Talbott and Christopher decided that the air campaign could cripple the diplomatic initiative, but that Washington had no choice. "Diplomacy was dead without the force," said a State Department official. By 7 p.m. Washington time, the first warplanes were launched...
...good reason to be. Milosevic whisked Holbrooke to the presidential palace in Belgrade, where he handed the American envoy a document signed by top Bosnian Serb leaders, including political leader Radovan Karadzic, military commander Ratko Mladic and Patri arch Pavle of the Serbian Orthodox Church. "Look," said Milosevic, in what for him must have been a moment of supreme satisfaction. "I now speak for Pale." Translation: the Serbian President did what he had boasted he could do-he had delivered the Bosnian Serbs to the negotiating table. Moreover, he could control the Serb side of the negotiations. According...