Bosnia Serbs May Reopen Sarajevo Supply Roads to Bolster Cease-Fire

Bosnian Serb rebels hinted Tuesday that they might allow vital supply roads into this isolated capital to reopen soon, despite an unresolved dispute with the government over control of strategic territory on nearby Mt. Igman.

The announcement carried by the Bosnian Serb news agency SRNA signaled an eagerness on the part of the rebels to salvage a cease-fire brokered by former President Jimmy Carter that has created a breath-catching pause for all factions in the 33-month-old Serbian rebellion.

But stepped-up attacks on the Bihac region, where more than 100 heavy artillery blasts were reported Tuesday, stirred fresh worries about the durability of the truce.

While the Bosnian combatants wrestled with their commitments to mothball the war for four months, diplomats of the five-nation Contact Group met in Paris to ponder a strategy for winning rebel acceptance of their plan for dividing Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The group’s plan to cede 49% of the former Yugoslav republic’s land to Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and 51% to the internationally recognized government was offered to the two sides in July as a “take it or leave it” option. The Muslim-led government reluctantly accepted the split, but the Serbs have held out, demanding more territory.

Reopening of the important “blue routes” linking Sarajevo with government-held territory in central Bosnia and beyond was one of the main objectives agreed to by the Serbs and the government when they expanded the Carter cease-fire into a formal agreement to cease all hostile actions for four months.

But Karadzic and his military chief, Gen. Ratko Mladic, later demanded that government troops withdraw from a demilitarized zone on Mt. Igman as well as from two areas they captured while operating in the neutral territory.

Tuesday’s announcement by Karadzic aide Jovan Zametica indicated that the Serbs are unwilling to scuttle the cease-fire over the Igman issue.

“Despite the fact that the Muslims keep refusing to withdraw their forces from the illegally occupied ground . . . we are going to open up the routes for civilian traffic in and out of Sarajevo by the end of the week,” Zametica said, according to SRNA.