Security Council OKs Peace Force for Sarajevo : Yugoslavia: The U.N. would send 1,000 troops to airport in Bosnia--but only if a cease-fire holds.

By STANLEY MEISLER

June 9, 1992 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

WASHINGTON — The U.N. Security Council unanimously agreed in principle Monday to send a battalion of U.N. soldiers to the airport of besieged and bloody Sarajevo in a risky attempt to ensure the delivery of relief supplies to the starving people of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

While the troops are not authorized to fight and most would not go at all without a cease-fire in place, the Security Council action appeared to push the United Nations a step closer to a possible combat role in the embattled republic that has seceded from Yugoslavia.

The plan, proposed by Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali and approved by the 15 members of the council without speeches after a day of private consultations, depends on Serbian acquiescence for its success.

But there is little hope either at the United Nations or in Washington that Serb militia and irregulars intend to let the supplies through. In fact, the plan seemed out of date by the time it was proposed. Boutros-Ghali had made the proposal on the basis of an accord reached Friday but broken in a weekend of fierce bombardment.

(Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic appealed to the United States to send warplanes to bomb Serbs in the hills above Sarajevo, according to a report in the N.Y. Times.)

At the United Nations, the authorization of the battalion of 1,000 soldiers, to be sent in stages if all sides agree, could have great significance if it leads the United Nations to conclude in the future that no supplies will ever reach the besieged Bosnians unless its forces confront the Serbs head-on in combat.

This possibility was obviously on the minds of officials in Washington as the White House and the State Department called attention both to the horrors of the conflict in the former Yugoslavia and to the U.N. action.

State Department spokeswoman Margaret Tutwiler described the crisis in grim terms. “Western observers in the city tell us that Sarajevo is close to becoming rubble,” she said. “ . . . Our sources confirm that many people are slowly dying of hunger, most reduced to a diet of flour and nettles.”

A senior Bush Administration official expressed the widespread concern about the risks of combat.

“The Security Council decision to secure the airport is a difficult one because it could involve a hostile environment,” he said.

Several White House officials made it clear that they believed the troops will have to fight to secure the airport. Any combat mission for the U.N. peacekeepers would be rare.

The Administration’s public comment was cautious, however.

“We would like to get the airport at Sarajevo secured so that we can land humanitarian and medical supplies,” said White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater.

On the surface, the Security Council resolution is a cautious one, too. It authorizes Boutros-Ghali to send 60 military observers to make sure that Serb forces withdraw their antiaircraft guns and heavy weapons from the hills around the airport so that they cannot shoot down approaching relief planes.

Once the secretary general informs the Security Council that these weapons have been removed and a cease-fire is in force, the council will order the bulk of the battalion to Sarajevo. The 1,000 soldiers, 60 military observers and 40 police and other technicians would augment a force of 14,000 U.N. peacekeepers already in Croatia, another republic that has declared its independence from the former Yugoslavia.

The plan was prepared after the warring parties reached a tentative agreement Friday to let the United Nations take over the airport, now held by Serb irregulars, and to police the surrounding hills, also held by these irregulars. Boutros-Ghali acknowledged that the reopening of the airport for relief flights depends on “the good faith of the parties, and especially the Bosnian Serbian party.”

The intense bombardment of Sarajevo over the weekend, however, made members of the Security Council wary of the intentions of the Serbs, who have broken cease-fire agreements often during the war. But the bombardment also persuaded the members that they have little choice but to send U.N. troops to Sarajevo even if there is a danger of eventually exposing them to combat.

According to media reports from Sarajevo, the bombardment of the city continued Monday, and numerous buildings were on fire.

Bosnian radio and television reported that Muslim forces, armed with heavy weapons left behind when the last Yugoslav army troops evacuated the city Friday, had launched a counterattack to drive Serbian artillery from the surrounding hills. The Associated Press quoted the leader of Bosnian Serbs, Radovan Karadzic, as denying reports that the Muslims had taken territory.

“They are trapped like mice in a pumpkin,” he told Serbian Radio.

At least 14 people were killed and 350 wounded in Sarajevo on Monday, the AP reported.

At the State Department, Tutwiler reported that the attacks on aid convoys had forced both the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross to suspend their relief operations in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Only a small French convoy has managed to get near Sarajevo with supplies, she said.

Tutwiler gave a somber accounting: One million Bosnians have been driven from their homes in the last three months, more than 5,500 persons have been killed or reported missing, and 21,000 have been wounded. Most of the casualties were civilians.

Times staff writer Doug Jehl in Washington contributed to this report.