U.N. Officials in Bosnia Lash Out at Serbs : Balkans: Angry charges come after rebels hijack fuel tankers, ban armed escorts of relief convoys.

U.N. Protection Force officials Sunday accused Bosnian Serbs of deliberately undermining their peacekeeping and humanitarian mission after the nationalist rebels hijacked U.N. fuel tankers and banned armed escorts of relief convoys.

The incidents were the latest in a monthlong series of humiliations, provocations and sabotage directed at the U.N. mission, which has 24,000 troops deployed throughout Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Coming at a time when Western nations are seriously considering a pullout of their vulnerable troops, the actions seemed calculated to encourage the international community to leave Bosnia at the rebels’ mercy.

Bosnian Serb gunmen surprised Danish military escorts early Sunday at a roadblock near the capital, Sarajevo, chasing most U.N. personnel away at gunpoint and stealing three tankers, mission spokesman Paul Risley said.

Two of the drivers refused to leave their vehicles and were hijacked along with the fuel. They were later released.

Lt. Col. Jan-Dirk von Merveldt, the U.N. mission’s Sarajevo spokesman, called the fuel heist “highway robbery and inflamed banditry.”

Constant harassment of the mission supply lines has endangered most U.N. operations in Bosnia. The 400 U.N. troops in the “safe area” of Gorazde have been forced to make dangerous foot patrols to keep an eye on that city, and all armored-vehicle convoy protection was due to cease this week for lack of fuel even before the Serbian announcement banning military escorts.

Shepherding relief convoys into besieged areas of Bosnia is the main task of the U.N. mission, and such a ban would render the presence of most troops meaningless.

U.N. troops also are supposed to protect six designated safe areas--Gorazde, Sarajevo, Srebrenica, Zepa, Tuzla and Bihac. But their presence in those enclaves is largely symbolic and has done little to deter artillery attacks.

The Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees has warned that the agency would be unable to deliver food, medicine and shelter supplies to embattled communities without U.N. military escorts across Serbian lines.

“This is an unacceptable demand on the part of the Bosnian Serbs,” Risley said. “This indicates an organized attempt by the Bosnian Serbs to create conditions for the continued delivery of humanitarian aid to civilians within their territory but without any UNPROFOR (U.N. Protection Force) presence. They are saying they don’t need UNPROFOR.”

That has been the message from the Serbs for weeks as they have grabbed U.N. troops as insurance against further air strikes by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and have trapped peacekeepers guarding besieged enclaves.

European Union officials who met over the weekend pushed for maintaining the troubled peacekeeping mission as long as possible.

But a deadlock in peace negotiations has heightened concerns in troop-contributing countries about the safety of peacekeepers and has escalated moves to pull them out.