DATE: Saturday, September 13, 1997          TAG: 9709130298

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A10  EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 

DATELINE: SARAJEVO, BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA      LENGTH:   41 lines

U.S. COMMANDER OF NATO SAYS ``LETHAL FORCE'' READY IN BOSNIA

Foreign peace-keepers will not tolerate disruption of Bosnian elections that have been postponed three times and are allowed to use ``lethal force'' to stop any violence, the American commander of NATO said Friday.

The comments by Gen. Wesley Clark - his strongest yet - came after Clark met with senior commanders and top international envoys who have worked for months and spent $14 million to prepare this weekend's ballot, one of the most complex ever devised by international monitors.

International envoys bill the elections as key to the Dayton peace accords. However, most Bosnians seem likely to vote along nationalist lines.

Clark made clear that violent attacks against peace-keepers, like those by Serb mobs who confronted U.S. and other NATO troops recently in three northern Bosnian towns, must stop.

The peace force ``is not a police force, it's not trained in riot control. threatened, it will use that force, and should it use lethal force I want to underscore that responsibility for the casualties . . . rests with the perpetrators'' of violence, he said.

The elections ``are an important milestone,'' NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana said. ``I do think that, after the elections, the climate here in Bosnia-Herzegovina will be better.''

The weeks before the elections have seen both increased brinkmanship by rival Muslim, Serb and Croat hard-liners and a bitter power struggle in the Serb half of Bosnia. As a result, diplomatic pressure to stick to Dayton has mounted, forcing hard-liners to make concessions - at least for now.

The Serb member of Bosnia's joint presidency ended a two-month boycott of its meetings Friday, showing up for a session in Sarajevo. Momcilo Krajisnik, top aide to wartime leader Radovan Karadzic, had been threatened with forfeiting his seat if he did not show up this week to meet his Muslim and Croat counterparts.

He had boycotted since July 10, when NATO troops shot one Serb war crimes suspect and arrested another. Krajisnik said he feared arrest in Sarajevo.

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