Hundreds Frustrated as Bosnia Cancels Sarajevo Departures

Hundreds of people desperate to escape besieged Sarajevo had their hopes dashed Friday when Bosnia’s Muslim government called off an evacuation planned by the Red Cross.

One disappointed group of 900 Croats vowed that they would leave anyway, on foot if necessary.

“I cannot let my family starve here. . . . No matter what the risks are, we will try to go on foot,” said 55-year-old Kresimir Culjak, who was organizing the exodus.

“Here it is a sort of imprisonment, a slavery.”

The Bosnian Red Cross had planned to evacuate refugees in two convoys leaving today and Sunday.

But the plan was torpedoed by an order from Bosnia’s Muslim President Alija Izetbegovic forbidding men between 18 and 60 to leave under any circumstances.

The determination of the Croats to make their own way out of the city could deal a heavy blow to an already shaky alliance between Bosnian and Croatian forces against Serbian rebels.

The Bosnian government says the evacuation would deprive Sarajevo of the manpower and determination needed to hold out against a Serbian siege that is already 7 months old.

But some would-be evacuees said they feel like hostages.

“In my opinion this convoy was canceled not just because men cannot go, but because the government wants to keep everyone here to show them the suffering in Sarajevo,” said one man who wanted to send his wife and children to safety.

“Every child who is killed here is a plus for Bosnia-Herzegovina in the propaganda war.”

Relations between Bosnian and Croatian forces have been tense since fighting broke out between them briefly in central Bosnia two weeks ago.

Many Muslims fear that the Croats are really trying to carve their own territory out of western Bosnia-Herzegovina, with the ultimate aim of joining it to neighboring Croatia.

The approach of winter--and the plight of Sarajevo’s 380,000 residents who are surviving without basic supplies--has increased the urgency of international efforts to end fighting and secure supply routes.

But relief efforts are often a hazardous and thankless task, sometimes disrupted by the very people aid organizations are trying to help.

The planned Red Cross convoy was the third humanitarian effort to fail in Bosnia-Herzegovina in 24 hours.