Serbs Pound Muslim Enclave and Sarajevo

Serbian gunners pounded the eastern Muslim enclave of Gorazde and stepped up shelling of Sarajevo on Monday as the commander of U.N. peacekeepers arrived here in the capital hoping to arrange a truce.

Fighting between Bosnian Croats and Muslim-led government forces also moved closer to Sarajevo, with the onetime allies battling along the road to Kiseljak west of the capital.

“This is the first time we’ve seen this kind of shelling concentrated in this area,” said Cmdr. Barry Frewer, a spokesman for U.N. peacekeepers. “We don’t know whether it is the shape of things to come.”

But U.N. concern remained focused on Gorazde, where as many as 70,000 residents and refugees have been isolated for months and hammered for the past 18 days by besieging Bosnian Serbs.

Gorazde is one of six towns designated as safe areas by the United Nations, but Serbs so far have refused to allow U.N. observers to enter the town, which is the last eastern enclave held by Muslim-led troops.

“We are looking into Gorazde today (Monday), and we do hope that we will get some more information from that area,” said Swedish Gen. Lars-Eric Wahlgren, commander of all U.N. peacekeeping forces in the former Yugoslav republics.

After flying to Sarajevo from Belgrade, capital of the Serbian-dominated rump Yugoslavia, Wahlgren planned to meet today with the commanders of the Bosnian Serb, Croat and Muslim-led government forces to discuss a cease-fire. But it was uncertain whether all three would show up.

Bosnia’s government-run radio, citing ham radio reports from Gorazde, said Monday night that 69 people had been killed and dozens wounded during the previous 24 hours as Serbs advanced closer to the town.

The radio said shells hit two homes in the nearby village of Grabova Ravan, killing the families inside. It did not say how many people died.

At least 52 people were reported killed Sunday in an artillery attack on a makeshift hospital in Gorazde.

In Sarajevo, shelling intensified in the new town area, although relief officials were able to resume the aid airlift suspended Sunday after a shell hit the airport runway.

In central Bosnia, Frewer reported new clashes Monday around Croat-held Vitez and a “very strong threat” from the Muslim-led Bosnian army around Kakanj.