(15 Sep 1995) Natural Sound
Bosnian government troops have been consolidating their hold on the territory they seized from the Serbs earlier this week.
Over the past three days, the Bosnian government troops and their Croatian allies have seized four key towns and some 800 square miles (1280 square kilometres) of western Bosnia from the Bosnian Serbs.
Donji Vakuf is one of the strategic Serb-held towns which combined Croatian and predominantly Muslim Bosnian government forces seized this week.
Bosnian government troops entered houses in the village of Spici on Thursday ensuring that their newly acquired areas were safe - and likely to remain theirs.
Soldiers fired as they entered the village's houses in case any rebel Serb fighters were hiding inside.
Spici is just one village of the 800 square miles (1280 square kilometres) of land that the Croatian and Bosnian government forces have seized over the past three days.
But while the combined forces made progress in taking land from the Bosnian Serbs, the United Nations senior envoy asked the Bosnian government to refrain from further offensive action during the NATO ceasefire,
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"There's a lot of offensive action by Croatian troops, both Bosnian-Croat and Croatian Croat troops as well as Bosnian government troops. It is important that the Secretary General of U.N. and Secretary General of NATO issued a joint statement strongly criticizing and cautioning the offensive military action in central Bosnia. This can be a very disquieting element."
SUPERCAPTION: UN Special Envoy Yasushi Akashi
Some believe the Bosnian government was trying to grab land in anticipation of the U-S peace plan which aims to practically divide the country in half.
U-N officials have said the Serbs may have made tactical withdrawals from the towns rather than fight for them, realising they would have to give up the land anyway.
The U-S peace plan, proposed by the U-S Assistant Secretary of State, Richard Holbrooke, aims to give the Bosnian government and its Croat allies 51 per cent of Bosnia.
The Bosnian Serbs, who currently control around two-thirds of Bosnia, would be given the remaining 49 per cent, although there is still big disagreements on who gets what..
Find out more about AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
Twitter: [ Ссылка ]
Facebook: [ Ссылка ]
Instagram: [ Ссылка ]
You can license this story through AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
