52 Reported Killed as Serb Rockets Hit Bosnia Hospital

Serbian rockets smashed into a hospital in the eastern Bosnian enclave of Gorazde on Sunday, killing 52 patients as ground forces closed in on the Muslim town, Sarajevo Radio reported.

“No one survived. . . . The place is now a mixture of pieces of dead bodies, bricks and plaster,” ham radio operator Fahrudin Becic told Sarajevo Radio.

Although Gorazde has been declared a safe area by the U.N. Security Council, Serbian forces have continued to bar U.N. military observers from the area. Amateur radio reports often have proved generally accurate, although details frequently have been exaggerated. U.N. officials could not confirm the report.

But the U.N. commander in Bosnia, Gen. Philippe Morillon, repeated his demand Sunday that Serbs admit observers. He said the U.N. Protection Force in Bosnia would “have no option but to withdraw” unless it gets full cooperation from all sides to halt the 14-month-old war.

Gorazde is the last Muslim stronghold to defy the Serbs, who now control virtually all of eastern Bosnia, which was ethnically mixed when the war began.

In central Bosnia on Sunday, fighting raged on between Muslims, who have been on an offensive for the past week, and Croats.

Bosnia’s Muslim-led presidency, in Geneva for talks with international mediators, ordered an immediate end to the fighting between its forces and Croats, said Bosnian Vice President Ejup Ganic.

It was not known if the cease-fire would take effect. Similar truces have had little effect.

Sarajevo Radio reported fighting at close range on front lines around Gorazde and said it was “raining projectiles.” It reported that up to 75 people had died there since Saturday.

Sunday’s death toll, if independently confirmed, would be one of the worst single incidents in the Bosnian war.