Disaster Forecast as Bosnia Strife Spreads

Heavy clashes spread across Bosnia-Herzegovina on Friday and U.N. special envoy Cyrus R. Vance said the former Yugoslav republic faces disaster unless the bloodshed stops.

Serb irregular forces, who are fighting Muslim and Croat fighters over Bosnia’s newly won independence, said they had seized the eastern town of Foca after a seven-day battle.

If confirmed, it would be the fourth strategically important town taken by the Serbs near the border with the republic of Serbia in the last two weeks.

The Serb-led Yugoslav army said it had routed Muslim and Croat strongholds in the towns of Neum, Trebinje and Stolac.

Battles were reported in the north, southwest and east of the republic and the capital Sarajevo was surrounded.

Vance, who met the warring sides here Thursday, urged them to observe a truce that has been repeatedly violated since it was agreed upon Sunday.

“Continued fighting is going to benefit nobody. It will be a disaster and there will be no winners in any such situation,” Vance told reporters in Zagreb, capital of Croatia.

Vance went to Croatia to enlist the help of the republic’s leaders in ending fighting that has killed more than 100 people this month in Bosnia, where 17% of the 4.3 million people are Croats.

Most Muslims and Croats support independence, but the minority Serbs want to stay in Yugoslavia.

Vance negotiated the deployment of U.N. peacekeeping troops in Croatia after months of fighting there, but has ruled out using them in Bosnia.

Fighting flared soon after Vance left Bosnia on Thursday. Machine-gun fire and explosions rattled across Sarajevo through the night and all day Friday.

Sarajevo radio reported shooting in the eastern towns of Foca, Visegrad, Gorazde and Zvornik, in Derventa, Bosanski Brod and Bosanski Samac in the north and in Mostar in the southwest.

Local Serb leaders said Serb forces had taken control of Foca, a mainly Muslim-populated town a few miles from the border with Serbia. Serb forces had already taken Bijeljina, Visegrad and Zvornik. All are on or close to the border with Serbia and are in strategically important positions or on major roads.

Red Cross officials said 170,000 people had fled their homes since the conflict began in Bosnia, but relief workers said they failed to get into Foca because barricades blocked entry.