Word: serbians
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...months as commander of the U.N. peace force in Bosnia, French General Philippe Morillon earned a maverick reputation. He struck observers as unpredictable, impulsive, eccentric; one senior U.N. official called him "a loose cannon" in constant need of being "reined in." He held strange formal dinners while Serbian shells fell on Sarajevo: stories of waiters in tails serving guests in white gloves and full dress uniforms scandalized the city. No one thought he was inclined toward heroics until last week, when he surprised his colleagues, and perhaps himself. He risked his life, his honor and the U.N.'s dwindling credibility...
...shield. I will remain in Srebrenica as long as I consider the safety of the inhabitants at risk." Those were brave words from a soldier who up to then had had few admirers. He had drawn criticism from the U.N. contingent in the Bosnian capital for hobnobbing with Serbian militia chiefs, like Ratko Mladic, dubbed the "Butcher of Sarajevo," and for not forthrightly denouncing Serbian aggression. His orders from the U.N. were not to use force and not to take sides, and he stuck firmly -- perhaps too firmly -- to those instructions...
...trip to the now fallen Muslim village of Cerska earlier this month the general shocked others on the scene by saying he had not "smelled the odor of death" there. When he returned to the area last week, it was all around him. Serbian shells rained down, one a second at times, and 20 or more people died every day. Morillon drove in over a snow-covered mountain track and encountered the reality of Srebrenica: refugees trudging south from captured towns had swollen the population from 9,000 to as many as 80,000. Everywhere there were ragged, hungry crowds...
...Serbian-Bosnian border, in spite of repeated promises, Serbian forces continued to block a U.N. convoy of 16 trucks bound for Srebrenica with 175 tons of food and medicine. No trucks had gone through to the town since Dec. 9, and the only supplies to arrive there were those parachuted in by U.S. Air Force C-130 cargo planes. Several people were stabbed in struggles over the dropped bundles. Morillon spent eight days futilely trying to open the road for the convoy and start the evacuation of sick and wounded. "We absolutely need this convoy," he said...
...standoff continued throughout the week. Serbian troops promised again to allow the convoy to proceed but each time halted it. In a radio message to his Sarajevo headquarters, Morillon termed the situation "unbearable" and said "people are dying right in front of me." On Friday, his frustration boiled over. He drove to the border and demanded an end to the stalling. He accepted Serbian terms that he travel without his escort of two Canadian armored personnel carriers and headed back to Srebrenica in his command car -- followed this time by the trucks of the relief convoy...