UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Wednesday, September 6, 1995
11A
NATO air attacks show West means business
The Associated Press
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina — NATO launched new air attacks yesterday on rebel targets to force the Serbs to pull their big guns out of striking range of Sarajevo.
The airstrikes appeared to end about an hour after they started, at least around Sarajevo. One U.N. official, who asked for anonymity, said yesterday's attacks would go late into the night.
"The attacks will go on until the Serbs comply with our demands," said U.N. spokesman Chris Gunness. "We hope that a strong signal being sent to the Bosnian Serbs will make them realize that the international community is serious."
Western military sources said targets were similar to those attacked last week, when NATO went after ammunition dumps, anti-aircraft and radar sites and command-and-control installations.
The Bosnian Serb military said the raids caused extensive damage and civilian casualties, but did not say in its statement what was attacked. There was no confirmation of the claims.
The primary aim of the bombardment was to get the Serbs to pull about 300 heavy weapons out of a
121/2-mile zone around Sarajevo. Other demands were reopening Sarajevo's airport and land routes into the city and an end to attacks on U.N.-declared "safe areas," including Sarajevo.
Beyond that, the airstrikes were also meant to show the Serbs that the West meant business ahead of the resumption of peace negotiations Fridav.
The United Nations wants the Serbs to accept a U.S. peace initiative that would give the Serbs 49 percent of Bosnia compared to the nearly 70 percent they hold now. A Bosnian Croat and Muslim federation would get the rest.
Warplanes zoomed in over the western part of Sarajevo around noon, and several loud explosions followed in the city's Serb-held southwest suburbs.
"They cannot win this war through an escalation of a military conflict," Gunness said in Zagreb, Croatia. "They have to sit now at the negotiating table and talk peace."
After the initial strike, more air activity and several more explosions were heard. Detonations also were heard in the Bosnian Serb headquarters of Pale, about nine miles southeast of Sarajevo.
Hours later, U.N. officials in the northern town of Tuzla reported three explosions in the area of a Serb-held hillside communications tower, apparently from NATO attacks.
In Sarajevo, people gazed up as the jets began their attacks. The mood was festive; after the initial three-day wave of airstrikes ended Friday, many had begun to get discouraged about the possibility of continued NATO action.
White House spokesman Mike McCurry said President Clinton fully supported, the renewed attacks.
One U.N. source in Sarajevo, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the planes had targeted a large Bosnian Serb barracks in the southern suburb of Lukavica. U.N. officials had been gathering weaponry there for a possible pullout.
On Monday, Bosnian Serb military commander Gen. Ratko Mladic offered a unilateral cease-fire but refused to remove his guns from around Sarajevo. His message appeared to override an offer by Nikola Koljevic, chief deputy of Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic.
Koljevic, in his brief letter, signaled overall compliance with U.N.
Mount Jahorina
Hadzici
About the targets
Lukavica: Appeared to be a target; U.N. said Serbs were gathering weaponry here
False: Serbs reported one explosion near their headquarters
Hadzick Serbe reported six explosions near the suburb
Hresa: Serbe reported one explosion
Source: News reports
Mount Jahorina: Serbs reported six explosions
and NATO demands, U.N. officials said.
The three days of NATO strikes began two days after a Serb mortar shell exploded in a crowded Sarajevo market, killing 38 people.
Clinton supports NATO airstrikes
The Associated Press
MONTEREY, Calif. — President Clinton is "fully supportive" of today's NATO airstrikes against the Bosnian Serbs, who refused to remove their heavy weapons around Sarajevo, the White House said yesterday.
Clinton was notified of the bombing yesterday morning by his military aide, who was given word by National Security Adviser Tony Lake in Washington.
Citing administration policy against discussing ongoing military operations, presidential spokesman Mike McCurry refused to say whether U.S. planes were involved in the operation or how long the strikes would continue.
Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon said U.S. warplanes flying out of Aviano, Italy, and off the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt in the Adriatic Sea made up more than half the NATO strike force sent against Bosnian Serb targets yesterday. A Western military source said about 80 U.S. warplanes were involved in the attacks.
Although preventing the shelling of civilians in Sarajevo is a key aim of the strikes, the NATO planes
were not always able to get at Serb artillery emplacements because of their proximity to populated areas.
Earlier at the Pentagon, Deputy Defense Secretary John White told reporters that the air attacks are designed to force Bosnian Serb compliance with allied demands, including freedom of movement for peacekeepers, no shelling of designated U.N. safe areas and the removal of heavy weapons from U.N. exclusion zones, particularly the area around Sarajevo.
"We had a pause of four days to allow them time for compliance," White said. "They unfortunately have not done so yet. I would suggest that they ought to do so and that they ought to do so very promptly."
White indicated that the latest series of air attacks is intended to pressure the Bosnian Serbs more than to turn the tide of the war.
"The president has been briefed on the ongoing effort to achieve Bosnian Serb compliance," McCurrv said.
Clinton has pressed NATO allies to support the airstrikes, hoping the pressure will force Serbs to accept a settlement.
FDA reviews new AIDS drug
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Hoffmann-La Roche Inc. announced yesterday that it was applying to the Food and Drug Administration to market a new class of AIDS drugs, and federal officials said that approval could come swiftly.
Hoffmann-La Roche, of Nutley, N.J., is asking for FDA approval of saquinavir, a compound that attacks the reproduction cycle of the AIDS virus differently than drugs now used.
Saquinavir acts on HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, by blocking proteinase, an enzyme which has a key role in the final phases of the replication cycle of HIV. Four HIV drugs currently marketed work by blocking reverse transcriptase, a protein active earlier in the replication cycle.
drug, which is a problem in all AIDS drugs.
In clinical trials, saquinavir reduced the virus in patients' blood and increased the number of CD4 cells, the immune cells that are the principal targets of HIV. However, the studies also showed that HIV eventually develops resistance to the
Some studies have shown that saquinavir was particularly effective when used in combination with other anti-HIV drugs.
Arthur Whitmore, a representative for the FDA, said the AIDS community was eagerly anticipating the drug.
Elephants rampage Indian towns
"We're prepared to move within four to six months," Whitmore said. If approved, saquinavir will be marketed by Hoffmann-La Roche under the brand name Invirase.
The Associated Press
NEW DELHI, India — An elephant alert was sounded Tuesday in India's West Bengal state after forest rangers reported seeing 55 elephants in three herds advancing toward villages and towns.
"There is need to take precautions right now. Otherwise, we are in for some serious trouble," said Subimal Roy, West Bengal's chief wildlife warden.
One herd of nine adults and two calves already reached populated
areas of Midnapore district, causing panic among residents, Roy said. They ate the rice crop in the village of Mahishdoba and searched for more food.
Trained elephants with drivers were ordered in to guide the wild herds out of populated areas.
Last year, frightened villagers used stones, spears and torches to attack a herd of 50 elephants that went on a rampage, crushing six people to death and trampling crops.
India's 20,000 wild elephants are protected by law and cannot be
killed unless they are declared rogues.
But India's population of 900 million people is growing more than 2 percent a year, reducing the size of forests where the elephants and other endangered species such as tigers live.
An adult elephant needs a quarter of a ton of food per day, and some can only find it in villages and farmland.
Roy said two other herds were seen moving out of forests 100 miles west of Calcutta.
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