No Target Too Young

It has been said that the choice Muslims face in eastern Bosnia is between < being transported like cattle and being slaughtered like sheep. Last week they got both. Shattering a two-week cease-fire, Serbian forces unleashed artillery attacks on refugees packed into the Muslim enclave of Srebrenica.

Serbian officials dared to excuse the attack as a response to Bosnian provocation. A more likely explanation was Serbian displeasure with enforcement of the U.N.-imposed no-fly zone over Bosnia. Coinciding almost precisely with the first NATO warplane patrols, the assault had been immediately preceded by a promise from Bosnia's top Serbian commander to stop shelling. The brazen breach of trust eventually moved President Clinton to declare "outrage." His words offered little solace to Srebrenica's defenders. By early Sunday Bosnian Muslim military leaders reached a cease- fire accord with Serbian forces that provided for the safe evacuation of civilians and amounted to a surrender of the city. Speaking of whichever Serbian commander ordered the attack, Larry Hollingworth of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said, "I hope his sleep is punctuated by the screams of the children and the cries of their mothers."