U.S. DAILY ON VUKOVAR AND INT. COMMUNITY'S FAILURE TO STOP TRAGEDY

WASHINGTON, Aug 11 (Hina) - Sunday's issue of The Washington Times published an article entitled "U.N. Intervention Too Late" on the 1991 fall of the Croatian town of Vukovar as a turning point, which was missed and which could have been used for the prevention of all later cases of massacres in the former Yugoslavia. #L# The leading idea of the article, written by Georgie Anne Geyer, is that today the 1991 tragedy of that eastern Croatian town can be sees "as the last moment at which NATO forces might have intervened to stop the fighting and to halt Yugoslavia's fall into the abyss." There was no political will for such a difficult decision, and the international community resorted to diplomatic and humanitarian measures, Geyer writes. She critically analyses the moves of the international community at the time as well as its subsequent conduct when it did not allow that names of the streets, which Serb rebels gave, be changed upon the town's reintegration into Croatia's system. She points to the problem of advocating reconciliation, while chief culprits are still at large. The article presents excerpts from the author's special report "When Force Fails: Flawed Intervention" on the history of the UN interventions. (hina) ms