Military

DATE=11/17/02

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=U-N/BALKANS (L-O)

NUMBER=2-296543

BYLINE=STEFAN BOS

DATELINE=BUDAPEST

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: Secretary-General Kofi Annan flew to Bosnia-Herzegovina as the United Nations prepares to end its decade-long presence there. During Mr. Annan's four-day visit he will stress reconciliation and will honor U-N workers who died in the ethnic strife. Stefan Bos reports from Budapest.

TEXT: Mr. Annan is visiting parts of the former Yugoslav republic where the organization had some of its darkest moments in the mid-1990s.

Among the perceived U-N mistakes was its failure to prevent a 1995 massacre in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica, which became known as Europe's worst atrocity since World War Two.

Up to eight-thousand Bosnian Muslims were killed by Serb forces in what was supposed to be a U-N-safe zone after an outnumbered and outgunned Dutch U-N contingent fled its post.

Yet after that war ended in 1995, the United Nations was able to mark up some notable successes in the Balkans. In Bosnia-Herzegovina, with the backing of tens-of-thousands of NATO troops, it oversaw the creation and training of what has been described as the most effective and best multi-ethnic police force in the Balkans.

The U-N operation in Serbia's Kosovo Province will continue after other activities in the Balkans close down at the end of the year.

/// OPT /// During his visit, Mr. Annan will unveil a memorial honoring U-N personnel who lost their lives serving in the former Yugoslavia. /// END OPT ///

Some Balkan officials have mixed feelings about the U-N pullout. They are concerned that some U-N policing activities to limit traffic in illegal immigrants and prostitution might suffer when U-N forces leave and the European Union takes over.

In his talks with Bosnian officials, Mr. Annan is expected to stress the need to cooperate with the U-N War Crimes Tribunal. He will be meeting with the court's Chief War Crimes Prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, on Wednesday in Belgrade.

Mr. Annan has made clear there is a need to arrest those suspected of committing atrocities during the conflict in which an estimated 200-thousand people died.

He will have a similar message to leaders in other ethnically-volatile regions of the former Yugoslavia, Kosovo, Serbia, and Croatia.

/// REST OPT /// Tuesday the secretary general travels to the divided Kosovo city of Mitrovica, where he will reinforce support for a U-N plan to link Serbs and Albanians in a municipal government.

He will also travel to Serbia and Croatia, where he will urge leaders to try to resolve the Prevlaka Peninsula border dispute. (SIGNED)

NEB/SB/DW/RAE