U.N. Efforts Jeopardized by Bosnia Fighting

Battles raged across Bosnia-Herzegovina on Tuesday, and the explosive new round of ethnic violence threatened to undermine U.N. peacekeeping operations in both Bosnia and neighboring Croatia.

With the Bosnia fighting blocking the establishment of logistical headquarters for their Croatia peacekeeping force, U.N. officials discussed a possible deployment of troops in Bosnia in addition to the force ordered to Croatia.

About 400,000 people have fled their homes in Bosnia, swelling the flood of refugees in the former Yugoslavia to more than 1 million, said the U.N. refugee agency. A spokeswoman said that tents will be erected for the displaced.

“Imagine the shame of people having to live in tents in Europe because they have no other shelter,” said the spokeswoman, Sylvana Foa.

In Mostar, a southern Bosnian city, a hospital maternity ward was shelled, splattering pregnant women with masonry plaster. No one was injured, AP reporter Slobodan Lekic said.

Just after midnight Tuesday, federal troops on a hill overlooking Mostar opened up with artillery. Every 20 seconds, the mosque minarets and church spires of the Ottoman-era town were silhouetted black against the orange flare of explosions.

U.N. officials tried to intervene. But an army commander said the shelling was revenge for Croatian militia attacks to the north and will continue until they cease, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.