Return to 'normal life' in Sarajevo urged; new agreement, cease-fires reached, but situation 'far from stable.' - includes related article on book 'I Dream of Peace: Images of War by Children of Former Yugoslavia'

UN Chronicle, June, 1994

All parties to the Bosnian conflict were called upon by the Security Council on 4 March to cooperate with the United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR) in the consolidation of a cease-fire in and around Sarajevo. In unanimously adopting resolution 900 (1994), the Council also called upon the parties to achieve complete freedom of movement for the civilian population and humanitarian goods to, from and within Sarajevo, to remove any hindrance to such freedom of movement, and to help restore normal life to the city".

Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali was asked to appoint a senior civilian official to act under the authority of the Secretary-General's Special Representative for the former Yugoslavia and to draw up an "overall assessment and plan of action" for the restoration of essential public services in the various opstinas of Sarajevo, other than Pale. William L. Eagleton of the United States was named Special Coordinator for Sarajevo on 29 March.

Taking note of the positive developments in and around Sarajevo, the Council stated they constituted "only a first step towards the restoration of peace and security throughout the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina on the basis of a negotiated settlement between the parties".

Also, by resolution 900, the Secretary-General was invited to establish a voluntary trust fund for the restoration of essential public services in Sarajevo to promote a return to normal life in the city.

The Council asked the Secretary-General to report on the feasibility and modalities for extending UN protection, as defined in resolutions 824 (1993) and 836 (1993), to the cities of Maglai, Mostar and Vitez.

On 16 March, the Secretary-General reported (S/1994/300) that the Bosnian Government forces and those of the Bosnian Serbs had withdrawn or placed under UNPROFOR control their heavy weapons in and around Sarajevo. By then, restoration of public services was reported under way in the city with the hope of extension to the country as a whole.

In a gesture of normality, a special match between Sarajevo's soccer team and a team of UN peace-keepers was organized on 20 March at the city stadium. With the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) planes and UNPROFOR helicopters overhead, the crowd cheered a 4 to 0 victory by the Sarajevans.

Overall, the tragic conflicts in the former Yugoslavia, which had involved human rights violations "on a scale unprecedented in Europe since the Second World War", constituted a "very serious test of and challenge to the international system of human rights protection", according to Tadeusz Mazowiecki, Special Rapporteur of the Commission for Human Rights.

|Unprecedented preventive deployment'

The Council call for a return to a normal life in Sarajevo was symbolic of UN efforts throughout the former Yugoslavia in early 1994 to end the three-year-old crisis.

The Secretary-General's Special Representative for Yugoslavia, Yasushi Akashi, at a 29 March press briefing, summed up recent key UN action, expressing cautious optimism, while stressing that "the situation was still far from totally stable".

Cease-fire agreements were being promoted both in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in Croatia. There had been an "unprecedented preventive deployment" of UNPROFOR troops in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, he said, in light of ethnic groups "vying for influence"

Negotiations continued under the auspices of the Co-Chairmen of the Steering Committee of the international Conference on the Former Yugoslavia--Thorvald Stoltenberg and David Owen. Ultimately, he said, the Bosnian Serb community would have to be brought into a federation such as the one agreed upon and signed in Washington, D.C. on I March by the Bosnian Presidency and the Bosnian Croat community.

The use of NATO aircraft--which occurred for the first time in late February--to protect the UN operation should be examined carefully. UNPROFOR "would not hesitate" to call for close air support from NATO "in any case where it had no other means of defending itself from a very deliberate attack", Mr. Akashi stated.

Still, he cautioned, "many years of experience in peace-keeping had taught the United Nations the limitations of force and the necessity for absolutely judicious use of it".

In other developments, the mandate of UNPROFOR was extended on 31 March for another six months until 30 September. Created in March 1992, the Force numbered around 22,000 at the end of March. In adopting resolution 908 (1994), the Council authorized an increase of up to 3,500 additional troops.

Lieutenant-General Bertrand Guillaume de Sauville de Lapresle of France was named UNPROFOR Force Commander on I February, to replace General Jean Cot.

Between 1 January and 31 March, the Security Council met, either formally or in consultation, on eight occasions to discuss the Yugoslav crisis, adopting two resolutions--on Sarajevo and on the UNPROFOR mandate--and issuing four statements.

Deadly attacks

A deadly mortar attack on 5 February on the central open-air market of Sarajevo--killing at least 58 civilians and wounding 142--was condemned by the Secretary-General as a "heinous act of violence". A similar attack took place in the Dobrinja suburb on 4 February, resulting in 10 deaths and 18 injuries.