Bosnian Serbs pounded the Muslim town of Bihac, a U.N.-declared "safe area" in northwestern Bosnia-Herzegovina, with artillery for the fifth day Wednesday despite warnings and protests by the United Nations.
"Three 130mm artillery shells landed in Bihac town. One hit a textile factory, another a residential area and the third impacted on open ground. There was one casualty: A 45-year-old civilian male was seriously wounded in the chest by shell fragments," said Maj. Herve Gourmelon, a U.N. military spokesman.Gourmelon said the barrage came from Bosnian Serb positions northwest of the "safe area." The suburbs of Sokolac and Zavalje, both within safety zone, were also shelled and there were sporadic exchanges of heavy machine gun fire.
U.N. Protection Force officials in Sarajevo said no response or retaliation for Tuesday's shelling of civilian targets in Bihac were immediately forthcoming despite a pledge last week by a U.N. spokesman that further attacks on civilians would be met with "a resolute U.N. response."
"Just because this attack wasn't met with a `resolute response' does not mean a `resolute response' won't be an option in the future," said senior U.N. spokesman Chris Gunness at the U.N. headquarters in the Croatian capital of Zagreb.
Gunness said the United Nations lacked the manpower to adequately defend its six designated safe areas in Bosnia-Herzegovina: Sarajevo, Gorazde, Tuzla, Sre-brenica, Zepa and Bihac.
"Secondly, we cannot carry out close air support in a vacuum. We must consider things like the humanitarian effort," said Gunness, and UNPROFOR's operations in the rest of the theater.