950820

AHSAN*NINTH

Pakistan shows

concern over

UN pull out

from Gorazde

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Sunday expressed its concern over the United Nations decision to pull out its peacekeepers from Gorazde fearing that it could escalate Serbian aggression in the last Muslim enclave in eastern Bosnia.

"We are unhappy with the UN plan to withdraw its troops from Gorazde", a foreign office spokesman told APP.

The United Nations spokesman in Sarajevo announced on Friday that world body would withdraw its troops from Gorazde in hopes of defending the last remaining eastern enclave with air-strikes.

"We, to some extent, feel comfort, that NATO air-cover will be provided to Gorazde but the mechanism under which the protection is to be granted has yet to be made clear", the spokesman said.

He said Pakistan is opposed to the proposal of ceding Gorazde to Serbs as it amounts to, "violation of all United Nations resolutions on the subject and will be a slap in the face of United Nations".

He said Bosnian government has also rejected the speculation bartering Gorazde with a Serb-held territory around the besieged Bosnian capital of Sarajevo as, "it will encourage aggression".-APP