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: Bosnia truce set as refugees shiver Date: Wed, 11 Nov 92 14:23:38 EST Message-ID: \SE A;WORLD \SS (WS) \HD Bosnia truce set as refugees shiver \BY Kurt Schork \CR REUTERS NEWS AGENCY \DT SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina - The warring sides in Bosnia agreed yesterday to an unconditional truce, but the refugee situation worsened, with a convoy of 1,500 men, women and children halted by a Serbian roadblock in freezing darkness. The cease-fire, set to take effect tomorrow in the former Yugoslav republic, was worked out by military negotiators for Muslim, Croatian and Serbian forces at a meeting in Sarajevo with representatives of the U.N. protection force. The truce was cautiously welcomed by international mediators Cyrus Vance and Lord Owen, who have made repeated attempts to halt the war that erupted eight months ago when Bosnia declared its independence and the republic's Serbs rebelled. "The international community expects all three sides to live up to their commitment," they said in a statement issued in Geneva. Previous Bosnian cease-fires were ignored or quickly unraveled. "There won't be any euphoria yet," a diplomatic source in Geneva said. Muslim leaders in the besieged Bosnian capital were cynical. Ejup Ganic, a member of the collective state presidency, said: "Very nice, no shooting anymore. The Serbs are not doing very well around Mostar so they want a cease-fire, and we have accepted it." News of the cease-fire coincided with the start of an exodus of thousands of Sarajevo residents - women, children and men exempted from fighting - to the safety of Serbia and Croatia. A first group of Croatian and Muslim women headed south for Croatia's Adriatic coast town of Split after tearful farewells from the able-bodied left to continue the fight. But as darkness fell, the convoy of 14 overloaded buses, packed with with women, children and the elderly, was stranded in freezing cold after being halted at a Serbian roadblock, according to U.N. peacekeepers. Sarajevo television quoted Bosnian army commander Safir Halilovic as saying Muslims had been taken off the buses and said he was stopping further convoys. The report could not be confirmed. Plans to evacuate Serbian refugees in another convoy north to Belgrade were disrupted by transportation difficulties. Only one bus left, and hundreds of people, many of them elderly, were stranded at the departure point. Meanwhile at the United Nations in New York, top refugee officials said some 10,000 Bosnian detainees are unable to leave the country because Europeans and other countries refused to offer them shelter. Sadako Ogata, the U.N. high commissioner for refugees, told a news conference the problem was not a refusal of Serbs to release detainees from prison camps. "There was no place to put them, even on a temporary basis," Mrs. Ogata said. 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