Sarajevo, Wednesday
MUSLIMS and Serbs blasted each other with mortars and artillery in
battles across Bosnia today as a European plan for the United Nations to
monitor combatants' heavy weapons ran into unexpected trouble.
Worked out in peace talks brokered by the European Community, the plan
provided for heavy weapons, from mortars and rocket launchers to
artillery, to be placed under UN supervision.
But in an extraordinary turn to the Bosnian drama being played out on
the battlefronts and in diplomatic corridors, UN Secretary-General
Boutros Boutros-Ghali rejected the plan -- which had already been
endorsed by the UN Security Council.
The UN chief's cold shoulder on the idea appeared to set back the
peace efforts of Lord Carrington, the EC's chief negotiator on
Yugoslavia, who chaired the London talks which produced the agreement.
Although the truce accord was ignored from the outset, it had provided
a glimmer of hope for an eventual breakthrough.
Despite sporadic shelling and machine-gun fire throughout the day, 15
aircraft flew into Sarajevo airport to deliver emergency supplies for
380,000 people trapped by almost four months of Serbian siege.
Elsewhere in Bosnia-Herzegovina, fighting continued unabated.
Croatian radio said more than 50 people were killed or wounded
overnight in heavy shelling by Serb rebels around the besieged town of
Gorazde, south-east of Sarajevo.
There was no independent confirmation of the figure but the radio said
more than 500 shells were fired at surrounding villages and at Gorazde,
where 70,000 residents, mostly-Muslim but also Serb, are trapped.
Gorazde's mayor said the town had enough food for just 48 hours and
might have to surrender to Serb forces.
During the night, battles raged in Sarajevo for more than two hours
before tapering off into sporadic exchanges. UN spokesman Mik Magnuson
said 300 to 400 mortar rounds were fired in one hour.
Camp Beaver, where Canadians in a UN peace-keeping force have set up
base in the west of the city, was hit by several mortar rounds, damaging
buildings and vehicles.
Fighting in Sarajevo and around Bosnia has picked up since the
EC-brokered ceasefire was signed last week. It had been due to take
effect on Sunday.
Lord Carrington and the UN commander in Sarajevo, General Lewis
MacKenzie, blamed all parties -- Serbs, Muslims and Croats -- for
violating the ceasefire. It was the 39th arranged by the EC.
More than 7500 people have been killed in fighting since Bosnia's
Muslims and Croats voted in March to split from Yugoslavia and form an
independent state. That move sparked a rebellion by Bosnia's Serbs,
about 31% of the 4.3 million population.
The latest round of fighting has left those sent by the international
community to try to halt the bloodshed openly pessimistic.
MacKenzie spoke yesterday of a ''downward spiral'' in the civil war
and said combatants shrink from nothing, not even shelling their own
people, to win world sympathy.
''We have evidence that both sides shell themselves in order to create
a particular image. I got so frustrated about this a month ago that I
said to both sides: 'If you'll stop shelling yourselves, maybe we'll
have peace around here','' he said.
--Reuter.
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