Zepa

It calls itself "the city of expectations. " But today, that motto has a bitter ring: What this central Bosnian city currently has on its agenda is the arrival of thousands of new war refugees who will join about 40,000 refugees already here. In the next few days, perhaps as early as this weekend, Zenica (zen-EETZ- zah) and adjoining communities are expected to play host to as many as 15,000 Muslims who will either flee or be forcibly removed from the eastern Bosnian enclave of Zepa (ZHEH-pah)

Holding her wailing toddler against her shoulder, Aska Kolovac talked calmly yesterday about her few weeks in hell. It began with an intensive Bosnian Serb bombardment of her hometown of Zepa (ZHEH-pah), a Muslim city in eastern Bosnia that had been designated as a U.N. "safe haven. " The shelling was so bad that many residents hid in their cellars, not daring to go outside. Others, including Kolovac, ran for the nearby woods. She stayed there 15 days with her 18-month-old son, Muhamed, the two of them sleeping on the ground.

Muslim refugees from the Bosnian enclave of Zepa, taken to a refugee camp in Zenica, weep for their husbands and sons, who remained in the woods around Zepa and hoped to fight their way out of a Serbian siege. The Serbs overran Zepa Tuesday.

The United States will press for additional indictments of Bosnian Serbs for war crimes, according to an assistant secretary of state who returned yesterday from Bosnia with fresh accounts of mass executions and mutilations in the recent capture of Srebrenica and Zepa. John Shattuck, assistant secretary for human rights, is the highest ranking Western official to investigate reports of atrocities in eastern Bosnia, and his account gave new credibility to the allegations. After interviewing Bosnian Muslim refugees and humanitarian workers, Shattuck estimated that 13,000 people are missing from the two former U.N. "safe havens," which were stormed by the Serbs last month.

ROME ITALY ARRESTS 'BOSS OF BOSSES' The head of the Sicilian Mafia was arrested today in Palermo after a 20- year hunt, authorities said. Salvatore "Toto" Riina, the "boss of bosses" was taken from a car in the Sicilian capital and put up no resistance, Deputy Premier Fabio Fabbri said at a news conference in Rome. The 62-year-old Riina is said to be head of the Corleone family in the Sicilian underworld, considered the ruling clan. JERUSALEM PALESTINIAN STABS 4 IN TEL AVIV A Palestinian man stabbed and wounded four people is today before a civilian shot and killed him at the Tel Aviv Central bus station, police said.

Bosnian army forces fired mortar rounds out of Gorazde at rebel Serbs today without provocation a day after a second NATO air raid to stop Serbs bombarding the U.N.-designated safe area, U.N. force commander Lieutenant- General Sir Michael Rose said. "The only people firing in Gorazde now are the Bosnian army, firing out of town with their mortars at the Bosnian Serbs who are not firing at all. We are trying to stop them from doing it," Rose said. Rose called the sudden Bosnian army mortar barrage a provocative action that could plunge the town into more fighting, which the NATO air strikes were intended to stop.

Finally, the Western allies claim to have gotten their act together in Bosnia. They say there will be decisive NATO air strikes if the Bosnian Serbs threaten the United Nations "safe haven" of Gorazde, crammed now with tens of thousands of Muslim refugees. They say that U.N. civilian officials like Yasushi Akashi, who still insists that only negotiations will work with the Serbs, will no longer have a veto over NATO air strikes. And some Western officials say that the other remaining U.N. safe havens, including Sarajevo, are under the new NATO mantle of protection.

How is it possible at the close of the 20th century, 50 years after the end of World War II's genocide, for the United States to do nothing while tens of thousands of civilians are being killed and deported in the heart of Europe? Where is the supposed leader of the free world? What happened to the principles this country once stood and fought for? Why isn't the Clinton administration explaining to the American people the ugly consequences of letting Bosnian Serbs seize the United Nations' so-called safe havens of Zepa and Srebrenica?

President Clinton came up with a strategy for confronting the civil war in Bosnia yesterday that might have achieved something if he had proposed it six weeks ago. The President was finally moved to action after the Serbs devastated the town of Gorazde, which was supposed to be a safe haven protected by NATO and the United Nations. Token NATO airstrikes that took out an occasional tank or tent failed to impress the Serbs. So the President now proposes another tactic to prevent the Serbs from devastating five more U.N. safe havens.

The war in Bosnia has been with us for so long that it's hard to believe it could soon be over. But a possible end to the fighting has never been closer. The Clinton administration's new tactics of tough diplomacy combined with NATO bombing raids against Bosnian Serb military targets around their capital of Pale have changed the entire dynamics of the Bosnian conflict. For the first time in years, the Bosnian Serbs are on the defensive. Yet there are disturbing hints that NATO and the Clinton administration could go wobbly before the bombing strikes achieve their desired objectives.

First you notice the shoes. Little boys in pink women's bedroom slippers. Little girls in boys' shoes so large they look like clown shoes. Adults in pathetic homemade clogs - worn- down running shoes with the backs either missing or bent entirely down. No one here is embarrassed by how bad they look: After 3 1/2 years of a Serbian siege much tighter than the one around Sarajevo, the Muslim enclave of Gorazde and its 65,000 residents have lost everything but their spirit. The new Bosnian cease-fire agreement allowed Western journalists to visit the city this week for the first time since 1992.

With the Bosnian Serbs bowing to the threat of more NATO bombs, and with an American envoy playing shuttle diplomacy for the highest stakes, it now appears that Bill Clinton's newfound toughness is paying off in Bosnia. Certainly, ever since the Western military alliance began pounding Serbian targets at the end of August, Bob Dole and company have stopped grousing about Clinton's feckless foreign policy. And yesterday, the Bosnian Serbs continued to pull weapons from the hills above Sarajevo, a necessary precursor to peace talks.

The war in Bosnia has been with us for so long that it's hard to believe it could soon be over. But a possible end to the fighting has never been closer. The Clinton administration's new tactics of tough diplomacy combined with NATO bombing raids against Bosnian Serb military targets around their capital of Pale have changed the entire dynamics of the Bosnian conflict. For the first time in years, the Bosnian Serbs are on the defensive. Yet there are disturbing hints that NATO and the Clinton administration could go wobbly before the bombing strikes achieve their desired objectives.

The United States will press for additional indictments of Bosnian Serbs for war crimes, according to an assistant secretary of state who returned yesterday from Bosnia with fresh accounts of mass executions and mutilations in the recent capture of Srebrenica and Zepa. John Shattuck, assistant secretary for human rights, is the highest ranking Western official to investigate reports of atrocities in eastern Bosnia, and his account gave new credibility to the allegations. After interviewing Bosnian Muslim refugees and humanitarian workers, Shattuck estimated that 13,000 people are missing from the two former U.N. "safe havens," which were stormed by the Serbs last month.

Muslim refugees from the Bosnian enclave of Zepa, taken to a refugee camp in Zenica, weep for their husbands and sons, who remained in the woods around Zepa and hoped to fight their way out of a Serbian siege. The Serbs overran Zepa Tuesday.

Holding her wailing toddler against her shoulder, Aska Kolovac talked calmly yesterday about her few weeks in hell. It began with an intensive Bosnian Serb bombardment of her hometown of Zepa (ZHEH-pah), a Muslim city in eastern Bosnia that had been designated as a U.N. "safe haven. " The shelling was so bad that many residents hid in their cellars, not daring to go outside. Others, including Kolovac, ran for the nearby woods. She stayed there 15 days with her 18-month-old son, Muhamed, the two of them sleeping on the ground.

Finally, the Western allies claim to have gotten their act together in Bosnia. They say there will be decisive NATO air strikes if the Bosnian Serbs threaten the United Nations "safe haven" of Gorazde, crammed now with tens of thousands of Muslim refugees. They say that U.N. civilian officials like Yasushi Akashi, who still insists that only negotiations will work with the Serbs, will no longer have a veto over NATO air strikes. And some Western officials say that the other remaining U.N. safe havens, including Sarajevo, are under the new NATO mantle of protection.

It calls itself "the city of expectations. " But today, that motto has a bitter ring: What this central Bosnian city currently has on its agenda is the arrival of thousands of new war refugees who will join about 40,000 refugees already here. In the next few days, perhaps as early as this weekend, Zenica (zen-EETZ- zah) and adjoining communities are expected to play host to as many as 15,000 Muslims who will either flee or be forcibly removed from the eastern Bosnian enclave of Zepa (ZHEH-pah)

How is it possible at the close of the 20th century, 50 years after the end of World War II's genocide, for the United States to do nothing while tens of thousands of civilians are being killed and deported in the heart of Europe? Where is the supposed leader of the free world? What happened to the principles this country once stood and fought for? Why isn't the Clinton administration explaining to the American people the ugly consequences of letting Bosnian Serbs seize the United Nations' so-called safe havens of Zepa and Srebrenica?

President Clinton came up with a strategy for confronting the civil war in Bosnia yesterday that might have achieved something if he had proposed it six weeks ago. The President was finally moved to action after the Serbs devastated the town of Gorazde, which was supposed to be a safe haven protected by NATO and the United Nations. Token NATO airstrikes that took out an occasional tank or tent failed to impress the Serbs. So the President now proposes another tactic to prevent the Serbs from devastating five more U.N. safe havens.