Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!enterpoop.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Armored vehicles to help get food to besieged Bosnians Date: Tue, 24 Nov 92 14:12:10 EST Message-ID: Lines: 86 \SE A;WORLD \SS (WS) \HD Armored vehicles to help get food to besieged Bosnians \BY ASSOCIATED PRESS \DT SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) - U.N. officials, angered by disruptions of their relief efforts, said yesterday that they will send armored vehicles to escort food convoys to two of the most food-starved cities in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Fighting at Sarajevo's airport prompted U.N. officials to suspend operations yesterday afternoon and cancel the day's last two relief flights. "Every week we are attacked, shelled, turned back, diverted," said Jose Maria Mendiluce, special envoy to Bosnia for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). "We have assumed a very important responsibility - to keep alive the victims of this conflict during the winter. We will do it." Western warships enforcing a naval blockade of Serbia and Montenegro stopped and searched two ships in the Adriatic yesterday, after a U.N. Security Council vote last week to tighten the sanctions. Both vessels - one from Ecuador, one from Syria - were allowed to continue when no contraband was found. The Security Council imposed the embargo in May to punish Serbia for fomenting the Bosnian war. More than 14,000 people have been killed in fighting that broke out after the republic's Muslims and Croats voted in February for independence from Yugoslavia. Serbs, who made up a third of Bosnia's prewar population, did not want to be separated from Yugoslavia in a state dominated by the two other groups. Serbian rebels have captured more than 70 percent of the republic, and Croatian forces hold much of the rest. The Muslims hold Sarajevo and little else. U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said in Geneva that Yugoslav Premier Milan Panic will go to Geneva tomorrow to meet with Cyrus Vance and Lord Owen, co-chairmen of the peace talks sponsored jointly by the United Nations and the European Community. Mr. Eckhard said the talks were likely to be general. U.N. officials said relief convoys will leave tomorrow for Gorazde and Srebrenica, where Serb forces have cut off the mainly Muslim populations from the outside world. They said the convoys would test new commitments by commanders on all sides to let U.N. relief workers go where needed, and the control the commanders exert over their forces. Two earlier convoys reached the 100,000 people still in Gorazde, under siege for much of the war. Srebrenica has not been reached at all. Ham-radio operators in Croatia said Hajrudin Avdic, chief of the Srebrenica defense staff, radioed an appeal to the Bosnian government, army, the United Nations and humanitarian agencies to evacuate 17,000 civilians from the town. The convoy for Gorazde, 30 miles southeast of Sarajevo, includes eight trucks carrying 80 tons of food. French peacekeepers in seven armored vehicles will escort it. The convoy for Srebrenica, 45 miles northeast of Sarajevo, will include 17 trucks and 130 tons of food. Ukrainian peacekeepers in eight armored vehicles will guard it. French Gen. Philippe Morillon, commander of U.N. peacekeepers in Bosnia, told reporters he remains optimistic despite a heavy bombardment of Sarajevo by artillery, mortar and tank fire Sunday that violated the Nov. 12 cease-fire. He blamed repeated truce violations on extremists from both sides who do not want a negotiated solution. Gen. Morillon said he was heartened that the presence of British peacekeeping troops seemed to have quieted fighting in Travnik, 45 miles northwest of Sarajevo, a city clogged with refugees and threatened by a Serbian advance. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM