UN anger at carnage in Srebrenica: 'Pathological' Serbs will kill everyone to get more territory, refugee spokesman says in face of latest atrocity

THE UNITED Nations yesterday condemned as an atrocity the massacre of women and children in Srebrenica in eastern Bosnia by Serbs. UN observers in the town confirmed that 56 people, including 15 children, were killed when Serbian forces bombarded the town centre, which was crammed with refugees. They said 39 people were killed as they cowered in the playground of a school used to shelter refugees who had fled to Srebrenica from outlying villages. Local officials said that at least 80 people had been killed.

'I hope the commander who ordered this burns in hell and I hope the soldiers who loaded the ammunition are tormented by the screams of the women and the cries of the children they killed,' said Larry Hollingworth, operations chief for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Sarajevo.

He said Bosnian Serb leaders should condemn the killings but he doubted whether they would do so. 'I wonder if Serbs really want history books to record how their armies drove people from village to village to village, holed them up in Srebrenica and then gave them two options, to be transported out like cattle or slaughtered like sheep,' he added.

General Lars-Eric Wahlgren, the UN commander in the former Yugoslavia, described the bombardment of Srebrenica as 'an atrocity'. In a letter of protest to the Serbs, he recalled that the Bosnian Serb commander, General Ratko Mladic, publicly promised to honour an agreed ceasefire minutes before Serbian mortar bombs exploded over the centre of Srebrenica. He cited a report from a UN observer: 'I personally have seen and counted 14 dead. Two of the dead bodies I saw in front of the hospital were children and one was decapitated.'

An amateur radio report from Srebrenica described scenes of carnage in the town centre, with mothers cradling their dead children. A convoy of six UN covered trucks reached Srebrenica yesterday and evacuated 800 sick and wounded to the government-held city of Tuzla. Forty-seven were women and children seriously injured in the bombardment.

In Sarajevo, Dr Simon Mardel, a Briton working for the World Health Organisation who recently visited the besieged town, said many among the 106 wounded in the attack would soon die. The one local surgeon and a tiny team of Belgian doctors would be unable to cope, he said.

'They will be overwhelmed and I feel despair, and wonder how we can just stand by like this. These people have nowhere to retreat to, no escape. It is the last stop.'

This month the UN commander in Bosnia, General Philippe Morillon, spoke of Srebrenica as a test of UN resolve. He visited the town and promised to save the 60,000 inhabitants and refugees from further Serbian assaults. But support for the charismatic French general at higher levels was lacking and the French Defence Minister, Francois Leotard, yesterday announced the general would be recalled to France this month.

There is a feeling of despair among UN staff in Sarajevo over the relentless slaughter of Muslims in eastern Bosnia and the failure of the West to respond adequately. Many spoke of their intense frustration at the limited UN mandate in Bosnia, which leaves them powerless spectators at a bloodbath. 'All we can do is send in aid and count the bodies,' a UN military spokesman said.

'The Serbs have a pathological desire to acquire more territory and are prepared to kill everybody to achieve their aims,' said John McMillan, the UN refugee spokesman in Sarajevo.

Aid officials have been warning for weeks of an impending massacre in Srebrenica. Without an effective UN response, no one doubts that the Serbs will wipe out the last pockets of Muslim resistance in eastern Bosnia. As far as the Muslims are concerned, the UN does not defend them and denies them the means to defend themselves through their embargo on arms purchases. Next will come the turn of the two remaining pockets in the east, Zepa and Gorazde, followed perhaps by the biggest prize of all, Sarajevo.

The Serbs have bombarded Sarajevo with mortar and artillery for the past two days. More than 100 shells landed on Monday alone, one close enough to shake the walls of the Holiday Inn and rattle the few remaining windows. The UN reported that Serbs attacked the city of Bihac in north- west Bosnia with 87 shells.

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