U.N. Chief Balks at Air Strikes in Bosnia : Report: Boutros-Ghali says there are not enough ground forces in place to make air power effective.
UNITED NATIONS — Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali held back Wednesday from ordering immediate air strikes in Bosnia-Herzegovina, arguing that they would be useless without a ground offensive that the United Nations is now too weak to mount.
The secretary general’s decision, announced in a report to the Security Council, came despite the pressure of a NATO summit communique a week ago that threatened air strikes and called on the United Nations to draw up urgent plans for ordering them.
His report made it clear that he is not yet ready to take the responsibility of ordering the planes of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization into action against Bosnian Serbs.
Boutros-Ghali dealt with only two areas: the towns of Srebrenica, where Serbs have refused to allow the replacement of 150 Canadian peacekeepers by Dutch troops, and Tuzla, where Serbs have closed the airport to humanitarian relief flights.
The secretary general said it is clear in both cases that “the use of air power, or the threat of its use, could not alone achieve the desired objectives.â€
“Other military assets†would be required, the secretary general said, adding, however, that these “assets†would be “in excess of those currently available†to the United Nations in Bosnia.
Spokesman Joe Sills told reporters that the secretary general was clearly referring to the need for ground support.
Boutros-Ghali told the Security Council that he had instructed his chief aide in the former Yugoslav federation, Yasushi Akashi of Japan, “to prepare forthwith detailed plans for military operations, with the use of air power as required . . . and to submit these plans to me as a matter of urgency.â€
But regarding ground forces, Boutros-Ghali has been unable to persuade governments to contribute more than half the 7,600 troops already authorized to guard Srebrenica, Tuzla and other Muslim enclaves designated “safe areas†by the United Nations.
Sills emphasized that the United Nations cannot come up with more troops if governments persist in refusing to send them.
“We don’t have troops,†the secretary general’s spokesman said. “We don’t print money. We don’t have ships. . . . We depend on the member states.â€
Boutros-Ghali’s report, according to diplomatic sources, also appeared to rebuff a proposal by Britain and France that he speed up the procedure for ordering air strikes.
They wanted him to give Akashi the authority to order the strikes in Srebrenica and Tuzla upon the recommendation of Lt. Gen. Jean Cot of France, the U.N. military commander in the former Yugoslav federation.
Instead, Boutros-Ghali asked Akashi to make a preliminary study.
In that study, Akashi concluded that air strikes by themselves would not do the job.
Any discussion about the use of air power in Srebrenica may be moot: Boutros-Ghali said Akashi is trying to arrange the exchange of Canadian and Dutch troops by “political agreement†with the Serbs.
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