Word: serbians
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Serb forces hailed the arrival of Russia's 400 peacekeeping troops, officially under U.N. command, as friends and saviors. Crowds plied the Russian troops with plum brandy and waved the three-fingered Serbian salute for the Orthodox trinity of Father, Son and Holy Ghost -- or church, country and army, as some claim. "When you get in trouble with the Serbs, please turn to us before raising hell," snapped Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Vitaly Churkin at the Bonn gathering. "There is nothing that would require strong words or strong actions." NATO countries, partly to help Boris Yeltsin fend off ultranationalists...
...military ultimatum worked in Sarajevo, why not try it in Tuzla or Mostar or the other Muslim enclaves under siege in Bosnia? As Sarajevans took a tentative step toward peace last week, freed from the terrors of Serbian guns that have rained more than 1.5 million shells on the city in two years, NATO leaders, Russian diplomats and Bill Clinton congratulated themselves on a small but important victory. Buoyed by the success, the President was prodded to apply the same tactics to other parts of the embattled country...
...apparent success of the NATO ultimatum in Sarajevo has really just begun Western involvement in the country. While many Serbian guns have withdrawn from the hilltops around the capital, the larger task of crafting a solution to the fighting remains...
...move their guns away from Bosnia's capital or hand them over to the U.N. It will, of course, be a good thing if the maneuver succeeds in stopping shells from smashing into the city. But peace is hardly at hand: the siege is not over so long as Serbian troops ring Sarajevo; the war is not over so long as Bosnia's ethnic factions do battle across the countryside. And many observers wonder if the Bosnian Serbs have not got the better part of the deal...
While the recent ultimatum against the Bosnian Serbs appears to have been a success, it is only the beginning of NATO's involvement in the war-ravaged country. Sarajevo is just one of the many Muslim towns surrounded by Serbian and Croatian guns, and a viable Muslim state is still a distant prospect...