Bosnia Declares Cease-Fire; Aid Trucks Blocked

Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic ordered Bosnian forces to cease fire Saturday as U.N. trucks carrying emergency supplies for eastern Bosnia ran into trouble on the first day of resumed relief operations after a temporary suspension.

Izetbegovic, who said Bosnian troops had been ordered to stop firing but would be allowed to shoot back if they were attacked, also called for an end to the boycott of U.N. aid which in part had led to the suspension of relief operations.

He also renewed an appeal for supplies to be airdropped to Muslim communities behind Serbian lines in eastern Bosnia-Herzegovina, where up to 100,000 people desperately need food and medicine.

In Washington, President Clinton confirmed reports that he is considering ordering U.S. forces to airdrop emergency food and supplies to eastern Bosnia.

“There are a lot of children in Bosnia who now can’t get food and medicine because . . . the trucks which have been delivering those supplies have been stopped,” Clinton said during a televised question-and-answer session with children at the White House.

“We have an agreement tentatively to try and start the trucks up again, but we may have to go and drop some aid into (the Muslim communities),” Clinton said.

Izetbegovic’s moves came against the background of renewed efforts for a negotiated solution to the conflict in Bosnia, where war broke out last March when Serbs opposed to the republic’s independence took up arms.

A new round of peace talks has been scheduled for this week in New York although it was not clear which representatives of the warring sides, if any, would attend.

On the boycott of U.N. humanitarian aid, which led to more than 1,000 tons of food piling up at Sarajevo airport, Izetbegovic said the measure had served its purpose “in a very clear way. It has focused the international spotlight on us.”

The 10-day boycott of relief supplies in the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo was one of the reasons that U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata ordered the suspension of relief operations Wednesday.

Her decision was overruled Friday by U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali and relief operations resumed on Saturday.

However, three U.N. trucks carrying emergency supplies for desperate civilians in eastern Bosnia almost immediately ran into trouble. Serbian militiamen stopped the trucks while they were heading for the Muslim community of Zepa.

What effect the Bosnian truce announcement would have on the situation on the ground was not immediately clear. Cease-fires have been declared and broken regularly in the 11-month civil war.