Path: bloom-picayune.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: Fighting near airport halts relief flights to Sarajevo Date: Mon, 9 Nov 92 14:59:57 EST Message-ID: \SE A;WORLD \SS (WS) \HD Fighting near airport halts relief flights to Sarajevo \BY ASSOCIATED PRESS \DT SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) - Relief flights into Sarajevo were temporarily halted yesterday by heavy fighting near the airport. The city was without water and electricity for a third straight day. Government radio there also reported continued fighting in central Bosnia and renewed clashes in the western part of the country. The head of the local Red Cross, meanwhile, appealed to the United Nations to provide escorts for more than 6,000 people trying to flee the besieged capital. Winter is setting in, and food and medicine are in short supply. A 10-truck aid convoy bound for Sarajevo was stopped near Mostar because of the fighting, a U.N. official in the Croatian port of Split said, and a group of Danish U.N. peacekeepers was stopped by Serbs on the road from Belgrade. In Belgrade, Yugoslav Prime Minister Milan Panic urged the West to ease sanctions imposed in May against Yugoslavia for fueling the Bosnian war. He said this would give him political leverage to defeat Slobodan Milosevic, the hard-line nationalist president of Serbia, in Dec. 20 elections. "Time is running out," said Mr. Panic, a U.S. citizen who formerly headed a California pharmaceuticals firm. "If [Western nations] don't help, they will soon have more Bosnias in the Balkans, but I will not be here to prevent it." Mr. Panic, named premier in July in a bid by Yugoslav leaders to improve the country's image, has quickly built his popularity. He could challenge Mr. Milosevic directly for the Serbian presidency, or head a party list for either the federal or Serbian parliaments. Mr. Milosevic, a Serbian nationalist, has been widely blamed for supporting the Bosnian Serb rebels, after backing attacks by Yugoslavia - now comprised only of Serbia and Montenegro - against Croatia and Slovenia last year. Bosnia's civil war began in April after resident Serbs rebelled against a vote by Bosnia-Herzegovina's Muslims and Croats to secede from Yugoslavia. More than 14,000 people have been killed in the fighting. Serbs have taken control of two-thirds of the country, with much of the rest occupied by Croats, who recently broke from an alliance with the Muslim-led Bosnian government. This government now controls only about a half-dozen cities and towns. On Saturday, Croats frustrated by repeated delays of a promised evacuation convoy tried to walk out of Sarajevo but were turned back by armed Muslims. Pava Barisic, head of the Red Cross head in Sarajevo, appealed for U.N. escorts for the convoys and asked the International Committee of the Red Cross to use its influence. The Muslim-led Bosnian army originally approved the evacuation but changed its mind, fearing able-bodied men would leave, reducing the pool of those who could be pressed into combat, Red Cross organizers said. An agreement was reached over the weekend to resume convoys this week. Bosnian officials said a Serbian commander had threatened to destroy the city unless the government allowed ethnic Serbs to leave immediately for Belgrade. Serbs denied issuing such an ultimatum. Yesterday, artillery barrages erupted about 5 a.m. near the Sarajevo airport and subsided about two hours later, U.N. officials said. A French U.N. officer said the airport was closed to incoming flights. But Mike Aitchinson, a U.N. flight officer in Zagreb, the staging point for the relief missions, blamed bad weather and said flights resumed 90 minutes later. Iran has sent at least three planeloads of food, clothes and other essentials to Bosnia's Muslims, the Islamic Republic News Agency said yesterday. Tehran also plans to open an aid office in the Croatian capital, Zagreb, to speed distribution, the report said. There has been concern about Iranian aid since September, when Croatian officials seized a planeload of arms and ammunition sent from Tehran in violation of a U.N. embargo. 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