2 Key Bridges Blown Up in Bosnia; 4 Killed

Masked commandos blew up the last two bridges linking Bosnia-Herzegovina with Croatia, killing at least four people, according to a television report Thursday.

The railway and pedestrian bridges near Brcko were the only links left to relatively safe Croatia for refugees fleeing northeastern Bosnia. Two months of fighting in the new republic have created about 400,000 refugees.

Croatian Radio said that masked men in camouflage uniforms captured a police patrol guarding the bridges at dawn and set off explosive charges. News reports said refugees may have been hurled into the water by the blast. Sarajevo TV said four people were known dead; other reports put the toll at 10 or more.

Sarajevo was quiet after being shelled for several days, but there were more deaths in the southern city of Mostar, and a Muslim village was put to the torch by Serb militias.

The Serbs have seized several Bosnian towns, apparently with the aim of creating a separate Serb state or annexing part of Bosnia to the neighboring republic of Serbia, which has announced the creation of a new, truncated Yugoslav federation.

On the diplomatic front, Greek Prime Minister Constantine Mitsotakis arrived in Belgrade, Serbia’s capital, and met with Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic.

Mitsotakis, Milosevic’s only ally in the 12-member European Community, said Greece supports the new Yugoslav federation announced Monday by Serbia and its ally Montenegro. EC foreign ministers are to meet today in Lisbon, Portugal, to discuss whether to recognize the federation.

The new Yugoslavia on Thursday established border posts with neighboring Croatia, Bosnia and Macedonia. Passports will be needed to cross the borders, Tanjug said.

Also in Lisbon, Serbian, Slavic Muslim and Croatian delegates met with Portugal’s EC coordinator, Jose Cutileiro, to discuss dividing Bosnia-Herzegovina into areas of “competencies” for each ethnic group.

Also Thursday, the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe admitted Bosnia as its 52nd member.