U.N. Chief Rules Out Peacekeepers in War-Torn Bosnia-Herzegovina

The United Nations said Wednesday that it would be too dangerous to maintain a peacekeeping mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina, a day after the European Community withdrew its last monitors to protest Serbian aggression.

U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali said the U.N. peacekeeping operation in Croatia, where about 10,000 troops were to be deployed to separate fighting Serbs and Croats, also is in jeopardy because of ethnic battles.

Guns fell silent in Sarajevo after Serbs declared a unilateral five-day truce Tuesday, but fighting raged against Muslim and Croat forces in northern Bosnia, the Belgrade-based Tanjug news agency said. It said fierce clashes between the majority Muslims and Croats and Serbs who oppose Bosnian independence were in progress Wednesday between the towns of Derventa and Doboj.