BOSNIA: SITUATION UPDATE скачать в хорошем качестве

BOSNIA: SITUATION UPDATE

The war in former Yugoslavia took a further twist Saturday, as Croat and Muslim forces tried to press home their latest battlefield successes. The next target in their sights - the Serbian heartland of western Bosnia. But the turnaround in fortunes on the field of conflict has been costly - hundreds of soldiers have been killed and civilians too have paid the ultimate price..... In Bosnia there is still much to pray for .... and much to be saved from. Today the Rizvic family buried a sister...... Melinda is the latest civilian victim of a war which has raged for two-and-a-half-years. As the Muslim defenders of Sarajevo manhandled her coffin to its final resting place; the Serb guns which have this graveyard in their sights were silent. But less than a horizon away the battle was raging on several fronts - the very men who Melinda Rizvic prayed for each night were making further territorial gains. Her husband and brothers had been granted permission to lay down their weapons to bury their loved one ..... but after the traditional period of Muslim mourning they too will return to the front. Today that front was at Kupres ,west of Sarajevo. Captured by a combined force of Croat and Muslim forces on Thursday; it too was the scene of funerals today. Drago Turalija never lived to see the historic Bosnian victory.... his comrades-at-arms in the now famous seventh Corps are tonight pushing forward to try and cement their new- found advantage. The next target is western Bosnia and perhaps the Serb-held town of Donji Vakuf. In Kupres itself the so-called liberators have been treated as heroes by Croats and Muslims who spent months effectively under Serb occupation. Many had their homes confiscated by the Serbs - who marked their traditional insignia on the outside walls to highlight their triumphs. Before the war Kupres' population was predominantly Muslim. Though the Serbs may have retreated from Kupres there are signs tonight that they are mounting a sizeable counter-offensive. This small Serbian unit near the town of Doboj is determined to fight to the death. Another Yugoslavian winter may be coming ... and the temperatures may already be plummeting; but the Bosnian Serbs are not in a mood to surrender. Their leaders have already declared a total war on the Croatian and Muslim advance . For the troops manning this machine gun post it means the prospect of another winter in the trenches. Sanctions have bitten deeper than the cold but the Serbs are not without the weapons of war.... the regular mortar exchanges, however, have left a heavy casualty toll. These Serb fighters know their war and life as they knew it before is over. The hospitals are full of the dying. Statistics show that for every life lost in this Balkan conflict , five more casualties are left maimed. With peace a distant prospect those figures are set to rise. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you... Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork