3 Peacekeepers Held Hostage, Are Freed as U.N. Opens Fire

Serbian gunmen in Bosnia-Herzegovina took three U.N. peacekeepers hostage for several hours Sunday, and fierce fighting between Croats and Muslim-led government forces reportedly prompted one U.N. officer to appeal for NATO air cover.

The incidents reported near the central Bosnian town of Vares illustrated the increasing risks faced by U.N. soldiers who often find themselves caught in the cross-fire of a conflict they have little power to influence.

European Community diplomats are meeting in Brussels today to discuss the possibility of establishing new aid corridors to get food and medicine to isolated and embattled Bosnian civilians, and North Atlantic Treaty Organization officers meet later in the week to consider more effective means of protecting U.N. troops escorting the aid convoys.

More than 10,000 U.N. soldiers are already deployed in ravaged Bosnia, but because their mission has been deemed a humanitarian operation, they have refrained from using force to get supplies across the combatants’ roadblocks.

After more than 19 months of conflict that began as a Serbian revolt against independence but has widened into a three-way battle for territory, more than 2.3 million Bosnians are dependent on relief agencies for food, medicine and shelter.

International aid officials have been warning for months that tens of thousands could die of hunger or exposure in central Bosnia this winter unless a more reliable relief effort is mounted.

Bosnian Prime Minister Haris Silajdzic added pressure for stronger U.N. action when he appealed Sunday over Sarajevo Radio for protection of the safe areas proclaimed by the U.N. Security Council six months ago.

The abductions and exchange of gunfire near Vares followed a week in which a Swedish U.N. contingent assigned to the area had acted more forcefully to help civilians than has been the mission’s practice.

The three Swedish U.N. soldiers were grabbed by Serbian gunmen at a Croatian checkpoint near the village of Dastansko while investigating reports that hundreds of Croatian refugees were trapped there, the Reuters news agency reported from a nearby village.

The soldiers were released after a chaotic exchange of gunfire, including 20-millimeter cannon rounds fired from the Swedish contingent’s armored vehicles.

NATO jets patrolling a “no-fly” zone over Bosnia made at least two low sweeps during the clash after one Swedish officer appealed for air cover, Reuters reported.

U.S., French and other NATO aircraft have been practicing for months for possible operations to protect U.N. ground crews, but they so far have no orders to engage Balkan forces.

While British U.N. forces in central Bosnia have occasionally fired on Serbian and Croatian positions after coming under attack themselves, the clash near Dastansko appeared more intense and may have been a coordinated attempt by the Serbs and Croats to dissuade the Swedes from their more activist role.