Serbs Block Aid to Muslim Town for a Third Day
A U.N. relief convoy trying to reach a stranded Muslim town abandoned a bid to find an alternative route Friday after being blocked by angry Bosnian Serbs for the third day.
The convoy, which was stopped from reaching Srebrenica by a crowd of Bosnian Serb women and children at Skelani, turned back to Ljubovija, where it was blocked by a similar protest Wednesday and Thursday.
A Bosnian Serb army commander said the convoy would be able to proceed today through Ljubovija and the next town on the Bosnian side, Bratunac, but U.N. relief workers said later talks with the commander yielded little hope.
“It has been a total waste of time,” Laurens Jolles, a representative of the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, said after 2 1/2 hours of talks with the Bosnian Serb commander.
Jolles said the convoy would return to the bridge at Bratunac this morning to try again.
Elsewhere in Bosnia, heavy fighting was reported in the northern town of Gradacac. And the besieged capital Sarajevo was deprived of water, electricity and telephones for much of the day, adding to the misery of 380,000 inhabitants trapped by the fighting.
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