Serbian Siege Prompts Bosnians to Boycott Meeting

Serbian fighters reportedly were waging an offensive against the embattled enclave of Srebrenica on Monday, prompting Bosnia’s army to say it will boycott a key meeting of military leaders.

The official Bosnian press agency said ethnic Serbian fighters were attacking with artillery, multiple-rocket launchers, armored vehicles and helicopters a few miles outside the town.

A U.N. relief official said the town, a haven for thousands of Muslim refugees, was in danger of falling.

Earlier Monday, U.N. officials announced plans to test Serbian pledges of cooperation regarding Srebrenica by sending daily convoys to evacuate 15,000 refugees from the town.

Exactly one year after the war started, military leaders of Bosnia’s Muslim-led government, Serbs and Croats were due to meet today at the airport in Sarajevo, Bosnia’s capital, to negotiate withdrawal of heavy weapons, opening besieged cities and establishing U.N.-controlled corridors to them.

But Bosnia’s army supreme command said it will not attend on moral grounds because of continuing Serbian attacks on Srebrenica, Sarajevo Radio said.

In other developments:

* Secretary of State Warren Christopher said in Washington that the United States will soon press for allowing arms shipments to Bosnian Muslims if Serbs continue to reject U.N. peace efforts.

* Lord Owen, the European Community’s negotiator on the conflict, called for “relentless pressure” on Serbs after they rejected a peace plan over the weekend. He was attending a meeting of EC foreign ministers in Luxembourg.

* Also in Luxembourg, the 10-member Western European Union stepped up the pressure on Serbian leaders by announcing that it will tighten the U.N. trade ban on Serbia and send patrol boats to intercept sanction-busters on the Danube River.

* In an interview with the Washington Post, Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic expressed satisfaction with the Clinton Administration’s policy on Bosnia’s war, saying he believes the White House will steer clear of forceful measures against Bosnian Serbs.

* A truce due to take effect in Croatia between Serbs and Croats collapsed almost at once amid artillery fire.

U.N. aid officials in Sarajevo, meanwhile, said that the first of the daily convoys will head to Srebrenica today.

Some refugees have been evacuated in recent days, but the efforts have been problem-ridden. U.N. officials suspended evacuations for a day last week.