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Wednesdav. January 12. 1994
NATION/WORLD UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Serbs threaten retaliation
Air strike threat might begin war leader cautions
The Associated Press
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia — A Bosnian Serb army commander played down the seriousness of new NATO air strike threats yesterday, saying U.N. forces also would suffer in any attack on his troops.
He warned that NATO attacks "would trigger World War III."
"They cannot strike at us without also hitting U.N. forces," the Bosnian Serb chief of staff, Manojlo Milovanovic, said in a telephone interview from the Serb stronghold of Pale, Bosnia-Herzegovina. "Our tactics are to keep close to the U.N. troops."
Earlier, Radovan Karadzic, the Bosnian Serbs' political leader, said talk of NATO air strikes could doom peace negotiations set to begin Tuesday in Geneva.
Serbs and Croats, who hold more than 80 percent of Bosnia, have offered Muslims one-third of the republic as part of apeace agreement. The Muslim-led government has rejected the offer, saying it would not give it a viable state.
The Serbs' SRNA news agency quoted Karadzic as saying the NATO declaration "would prompt us to reconsider land concessions offered to the Muslims."
Karadzic also warned that Serb forces could attack U.N. troops in
Bosnia in retaliation for NATO air strikes.
He commented before NATO had reaffirmed its readiness to stage air attacks "to prevent the strangulation of Sarajevo, the safe areas and other threatened areas of Bosnia-Herzegovina."
In August, NATO identified six "safe areas" in Bosnia and said it was ready to use its warplanes against Serb forces, especially those besieging the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo.
On Monday, President Clinton told leaders at a NATO summit in Brussels, Belgium, that "we have to mean it" if NATO again threatened military action to end Serb attacks in Bosnia.
The air strike warning, NATO's strongest yet, was issued as the summit ended yesterday.
Israel, Palestine discuss issues
The Associated Press
TABA. Egypt — New Palestinian demands for corridors out of the Jericho autonomous region bogged down talks yesterday, but Israeli and PLO negotiators reportedly were coming to terms on other points of Palestinian self-rule.
Nabil Shaath, the chief Palestinian delegate, and Israeli spokesman Ami Gluska both said negotiators were working on a written document summarizing points of agreement, but dismissed earlier news reports that a final accord had been reached.
Talks on implementing the Sept. 13 Israel-PLO accord for autonomy in the occupied Gaza Strip and Jericho on the West Bank resumed Monday in Taba, a Red Sea resort, after a two-week break.
"I cannot say there is agreement on anything yet," Gluska said. "We have presented our positions, and on some of them there is no response yet, but on other points the Palestinians are demanding more. If there was agreement, we would be celebrating, but there isn't."
Shaath said, "All issues are being discussed. We will not announce any agreement on specific items because all of the problems are interrelated."
Israel radio reported earlier that the sides had reached agreement on control of border crossings between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, and between the Jericho region and Jordan. Israeli newspapers said the Palestinians had agreed to an Israeli proposal on the size of Jericho.
The Israeli delegation arrived at the hotel with numerous map cases. Israeli sources said the Palestinians were shown sketches of international border crossings to the autonomous zones, with an equal presence of Israelis and Palestinians.
Israel radio said the Palestinians "were satisfied" by the offer.
Gluksa said the Palestinians did not object to the size of a 22-square-mile region around Jericho offered by Israel, although it is less than one-fifth of what they initially wanted. But the Palestinians were demanding extra land for corridors from Jericho to other areas, he said.
Also yesterday, a Palestinian official told The Associated Press that the PLO and Israel had reached agreement on releasing Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails. Such releases could start as early as next week, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The release of Palestinian prisoners has been a key Palestinian demand.
In a letter to prisoners, the PLO said Israel had agreed to free 3,500 prisoners the day an autonomy plan is signed. The remaining prisoners would be freed by July 13.
But government spokesman Oded Ben Ami said, "I know nothing about any agreement of that kind. Releasing prisoners is one of the issues on the agenda for negotiations between us and the Palestinians."
The Israeli daily newspapers Haaretz and Yediot Ahronot quoted army officials as saying Israel was preparing a plan for a phased release of more than 3,000 Palestinians.
Israel has said it holds about 9,000 Palestinians in its prisons. The Palestinian-run Mandela Institute in the West Bank estimates the number at 11,700.
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