http://www.yahoo.com/headlines/current/news/stories/yugoslavia.html (Einblicke ins Internet, 10/1995)
BELGRADE (Reuter) - NATO gave Bosnia's separatist Serb army a 24-hour breather from aerial bombardment, but after lengthy talks with the United Nations their commander still refused Saturday to lift the siege of Sarajevo.
The stalemate appeared to set the stage for a resumption of NATO's punitive raids.
U.N. special envoy Yasushi Akashi told reporters in Zagreb that Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic had made ``proposals (which) fall short of our position.''
``He will agree to withdraw the heavy weapons but subject to other conditions,'' Akashi said after Mladic held lengthy talks through part of the night with the U.N. commander in former Yugoslavia, General Bernard Janvier.
Diplomats said Janvier demanded maximum concessions by the Serbs, including reopening of the Sarajevo airport and supply roads, known as ``blue routes,'' into the besieged city.
NATO said early Saturday it had held off bombing Bosnian Serb targets for more than 24 hours, to give the Serbs time to consider the price of further defiance.
While Mladic and Janvier were negotiating, the United States announced that new face-to-face peace talks had been fixed for late next week in Geneva, in what was hailed as a breakthrough from war to negotiation.
An optimistic senior United Nations official said the talks could mark ``the beginning of the end'' of the Yugoslav conflict.
But Mladic's tough stance was sure to deflate the euphoria.
The warring parties, familiar with rays of hope in the past, warn that Bosnia is now entering a ``danger period'' in which either side might attempt to seize territory before their scheduled negotiations late next week in Geneva.
Bosnian Foreign Minister Muhamed Sacirbey said the NATO bombing pause was ill-advised.
``The NATO and RRF (U.N. Rapid Reaction Force) strikes are related to the siege of Sarajevo and to the heavy weapons surrounding Sarajevo. They should continue until those heavy weapons are removed, until the siege is lifted.'' he said.