Serbs Shell Sarajevo; U.N. Offices Hit

Serb gunners marked the New Year on Saturday by raining scores of shells on Sarajevo, including one that hit U.N. headquarters, just missing hundreds of aid workers at a party.

The shell that demolished the U.N. post exchange landed one floor below the party for 200 to 300 people organized by representatives of the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, said agency spokesman Ray Wilkinson.

“If it had been about 20 feet higher, it would have been very bad,” he said. No one was hurt.

At least one woman was seriously wounded Saturday when two tank shells slammed into an apartment building in the neighborhood of Kosevo Hospital.

U.N. spokesman Maj. Manuel Cabezas reported 93 shellings hitting Sarajevo overnight.

Normal life, nearly forgotten in 21 months of Serbian siege, forced its way through the death and danger. But even those efforts were marred:

* Soprano Barbara Hendricks, who sang a New Year’s concert at midnight, performed later in the day for the U.N. commander and his officers in central Sarajevo. While she sang, five or six shells landed within about 100 yards.

“She continued,” said U.N. spokesman Maj. Idesbald Van Biesebroeck. “It was beautiful.”

* In the waning hours of 1993, 33-year-old Valida Cocalic gave birth to a baby boy at Sarajevo’s main Kosevo Hospital. Cocalic and her husband had wanted a girl, to replace a 7-year-old daughter killed by shelling last Jan. 24.

Five people were killed and dozens wounded in shelling of the capital on New Year’s Eve.

The radio of Bosnia’s Muslim-led government reported that two other people were killed and six were wounded Friday by Croatian shelling of the eastern, Muslim side of the divided southwestern city of Mostar. Croatian shelling on Blagaj, six miles southeast of Mostar, injured 14 people, the radio said.

Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic sent a letter to his Croatian counterpart, Franjo Tudjman, calling for better relations, the radio said.

But Izetbegovic said relations could only improve if Zagreb changes its policies. Croatia has supported ethnic Croatian forces in the Bosnian conflict.