Serbs Delay Bosnia Aid Convoys, Threaten Attack

Bosnian Serbs delayed aid convoys and refused permission for U.N. helicopter flights Saturday. U.N. forces throughout Bosnia were put on alert following warning of a rebel attack.

The rebels’ moves appeared to be in response to Thursday’s air strike by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization on a Bosnian Serb tank near Sarajevo.

Bosnian Serb anger was heightened Friday when the U.N. Security Council imposed sanctions, banning travel abroad by the rebels’ leaders, freezing their foreign bank accounts and prohibiting commercial ties with Bosnian Serb-occupied areas.

Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb commander, threatened Saturday to strike a U.N. target after 8 p.m., said Maj. Koos Sol, a U.N. military spokesman. He acknowledged that the rebels had issued “a kind of ultimatum.”

There was no immediate attack, but U.N. troops remained on alert.

Flights into Sarajevo were suspended earlier after the Bosnian Serbs warned that they could not guarantee their safety. Bosnian Serb potshots taken at two aircraft Friday--the planes were not hit--underlined the threat.

Bosnian Serbs refused to permit U.N. convoys to go through territory they control and suspended flight clearances of U.N. helicopters throughout Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The suspension of the humanitarian airlift, along with the obstruction of relief going to Muslim-dominated regions by road, demonstrated the control Bosnian Serbs exercise even in the one-third of Bosnia they do not hold.

With Sarajevans left without natural gas, electricity and running water for the 10th day Saturday--Bosnian Serbs control utilities into the city--the suspension of the airlift added to the psychological pressure on residents.

Even as Sarajevo’s airport was idled, preparations picked up for the opening of Belgrade’s main airport for the first time in nearly three years. Seeking to reward Serbian-dominated Yugoslavia for its seeming embargo on war supplies to Bosnian Serbs, the United Nations on Friday decided to ease some Yugoslav sanctions, including a ban on international flights.

Ultranationalists in Belgrade said the price for easing sanctions was betrayal of the Bosnian Serbs.

The decision, which is to take effect after a report of monitors on the Serbian-Bosnian border is presented to U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, was made despite protests by the Bosnian government, which says Serbia continues to supply Bosnian Serbs.