serbs kill 50 bosniaks in gorazde massacre

8/8/2019 Serbs Kill 50 Bosniaks in Gorazde Massacre

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Gorazde Massacre, Serbs Kill 50 Bosniaks in First-Aid

Center

By Chuck Sudetic

Published: June 14, 1993

SARAJEVO, Bosnia and Herzegovina, June 13 More than 50 people were reported killed

today at an improvised first-aid center when Bosnian Serb forces unleashed heavy artillerybarrages on Gorazde, which the United Nations designated a safe area less than two weeks ago.

The Sarajevo radio reported that the shelling had left Goradze's streets littered with bodies and

that a rocket had exploded in the first-aid center, killing all 50 or so people inside. The number

of deaths, if confirmed, would be among the highest in a single attack since fighting began in

Bosnia in April 1992.

"No one survived," said Fahrudin Becic, a ham-radio operator reporting from Gorazde. "The

place is now a mixture of body parts, bricks and plaster." Muslims Flood Area

As many as 60,000 Muslims, including thousands of refugees from Visegrad, Foca and other

eastern Bosnian towns, are crowded into the Gorazde area, the only Muslim enclave in the once

mostly Muslim Drina River valley that the Serbian forces have not captured or neutralized.

Deputy Prime Minister Hadzo Efendic of Bosnia called on the Bosnian leadership to cancel

meetings with United Nations officials in Geneva and return to Sarajevo because Gorazde's

defenses were reported to be on the verge of collapse as Serbian troops penetrated Muslim

lines.


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The seven-member collective Bosnian presidency, which consists of Croats and Serbs as well

as Muslims, issued an order in Geneva urging Muslim and Croatian forces to stop their fighting

in central Bosnia as Muslim and Croatian leaders met to consider power-sharing arrangements.

[ Page A9. ]

The Sarajevo radio reported that the Serbs were advancing on Gorazde from the direction ofRogatica, Visegrad, Cajnice and Foca. The radio said that as many as 75 people had been killed

in the enclave since Saturday in some of the worst fighting there since the nationalist Serbs

initiated the war 14 months ago, after the Sarajevo Government declared independence.

U.N. Is Refused Entry

United Nations military observers in a neighboring safe area, Zepa, reported hearing heavy

shelling coming from the direction of Gorazde, Andy Burridge, a United Nations spokesman,

said.

The reports have not been confirmed, however, because Bosnian Serb leaders have refused

United Nations military observers and relief convoys entry into Gorazde. Although the

Muslims in the enclave have pleaded for medical and food aid, United Nations military

officials in Sarajevo insist that no United Nations personnel can enter the area without the

Serbs' permission.

Nonetheless, the Security Council resolution that brought the 8,000-strong peacekeeping force

to Bosnia says it can use all available force to protect the delivery of relief supplies.

Serbian leaders have consistently frustrated attempts by the peacekeepers to carry out theirmission. On Saturday, the Bosnian Serbs' military commander, Gen. Ratko Mladic, was

reported to have told the United Nations commander in the former Yugoslavia, Lieut. Gen.Lars-Eric Wahlgren of Sweden, that entry of the military observers into Gorazde was up to

Bosnian Serb political leaders. Last week, though, the top Bosnian Serb political leader,

Radovan Karadzic, told United Nations officials that the decision was up to General Mladic.

An Appeal to Leave

Tonight, the Belgrade radio reported that Bosnian Serb military officials had appealed to the

people in Gorazde to leave, saying they would guarantee them safe passage if they left through

Ustipraca.

"There is not much time left," the officials were quoted as saying.

If Gorazde falls, the uprooting of the 60,000 people there would amount to the largest single

instance of "ethnic cleansing" in the Bosnian war.

The latest offensive against Gorazde began around June 4, when the United Nations Security


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Council designated six Bosnian towns as safe areas, authorized the deployment of thousands of

additional peacekeepers to protect them, and approved the use of air strikes against Serbian

forces besieging them.

For their part, Bosnian Serb officials deny that their forces have attacked Gorazde, just as they

denied attacking and overrunning the Muslim enclaves of Kamenica and Cerska as well as

attacking Srebrenica and Zepa.

Shelling in Sarajevo

Artillery showered much of Sarajevo late Saturday and today as Serbian and Bosnian forces

exhanged fire. The artillery was especially heavy around the suburb of Vogosca, where Bosnian

Army defenders were reported to have attacked in an effort to capture strategic high ground.

At least three shells landed within several hundred yards of the residence compound of the

United Nations military force here, including one that struck the roof, the military spokesman,

Comdr. Barry Frewer, said.

Commander Frewer refused to link the shelling of the compound to the warning by the United

Nations military commander in Bosnia, Gen. Philippe Morillon of France, on Saturday that the

peacekeeping force would withdraw unless Bosnia's Serbian, Croatian and Muslim leaders

made some commitment to peace.

Near the central Bosnian town of Novi Travnik, fighting continued today between mostly

Muslim Bosnian Army units and Croats. About half of the vehicles in a private relief convoy

bound for the northern city of Tuzla left Croat-controlled territory around Vitez on Saturday,

two days after Croatian militiamen and civilians attacked it, killing nine drivers and lootingdozens of trucks.

"They are being shepherded through," Commander Frewer said, referring to convoy vehicles

being escorted through hostile Croatian areas by United Nations armored personnel carriers.

The Bosnian-Croatian fighting across the central part of this country has nearly shut down the

utilities in Sarajevo, United Nations officials said here today.

Electricity supplies have been reduced to about 3 percent of normal because transmission lines

from the south have been cut by the fighting near Jablanica and Konjic, and a power plant in

Kakanj has stopped working because of fighting there, said Maj. Michel Maufrais of France, an

engineer with the United Nations force.

'Europe Is Responsible'

"If you have no electricity, you cannot run the pumping station," he said. "And without water

there are no sewers. The people from the power plant have tried to maintain pressure in the

boiler with coal coming from Breza. But the trucks are being shot up, so they stopped


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deliveries."

Mr. Efendic, the Deputy Prime Minister, said 52 wounded and sick patients were killed when

the rocket struck the first-aid center in Gorazde.

"We have thousands of people in Gorazde who are just like sacrificial lambs," said Mr. Efendic,

a former Mayor of the town. "Europe is responsible for this. It has tied our hands, and all thatthe rest of the world has done is watch. Perhaps they might just pray for us."

serbs kill 50 bosniaks in gorazde massacre

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