Serbs Threaten to Shoot Civilians on Reopened Route

Bosnian Serb gunmen Saturday threatened to shoot any civilians traveling on a reopened supply route across Sarajevo airport, a move the U.N. Protection Force denounced as “outrageous” and likely to imperil a 2-week-old truce.

Rebels loyal to Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and their Croatian Serb allies also were suspected in an artillery attack that killed four civilians early Saturday in the U.N.-designated “safe area” of Bihac, U.N. mission spokesman Paul Risley said.

The Bihac attack was the first fatal breach of the truce arranged by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter in mid-December, which was broadened on New Year’s Eve into a four-month agreement to cease all hostile activities throughout Bosnia.

U.N. military observers were examining the scene of the artillery attack--a bridge in the heart of the U.N.-protected area--to determine which rebel faction was responsible, Risley said.

He indicated that the shells were probably fired by Bosnian Serb forces in violation of the Carter cease-fire or by Croatian Serbs, who are not signatories to the truce. The Croatian rebels have continued to encroach on the northeastern Bihac enclave on behalf of Karadzic and his rebels.

U.N. special envoy Yasushi Akashi, at mission headquarters in Zagreb, Croatia, was attempting to resolve the airport dispute by telephone with rebel leaders in Pale, the Bosnian Serb stronghold 10 miles east of Sarajevo.

Risley said the U.N. commander for Bosnia, British Lt. Gen. Michael Rose, planned to travel to Pale today to confront the rebels if they continue to obstruct the traffic corridor.

“We consider the actions by the Bosnian Serbs at the airport to be absolutely outrageous,” Risley said, adding that the threat to shoot civilians constitutes the most serious peril to date of the peace process revived by Carter.

Serbian and government officials had agreed after long negotiations Wednesday to reopen two U.N.-monitored routes across Sarajevo airport, which straddles the front line encircling this ruined capital. The crossings are intended to restore movement between the Serb-held communities lying east and west of the airport, and between the captive city center and government-held land to the south.

Officials from both sides had argued late into the night Friday over details of who could use the crossings and what goods could be transported into Sarajevo.

When they failed to reach agreement, U.N. mediators informed both parties that they intended to restore civilian and humanitarian traffic across the routes anyway, and Rose pronounced the airport reopened Saturday morning.

Traffic between the two Serbian points was to run between 8 and 10 a.m. and between 1 and 3 p.m. Those loyal to the Muslim-led government were to use the north-south crossing between 10 a.m. and noon and between 3 and 5 p.m.

Four carloads of Serbs in civilian clothing took advantage of the first shift without incident, Risley said. But when it came time to allow traffic between the government enclaves, Serbian gunmen were noticed positioning themselves within about 20 yards of the roadway, U.N. sources said, prompting French peacekeeping officials who operate the airport to contact the rebels.

“The Bosnian Serb liaison officer at the airport informed the French that the Bosnian Serbs had not agreed to opening the airport routes and that any traffic crossing would be fired at,” Risley said.

A Bosnian government broadcast blamed the incident on local Serbian renegades who oppose allowing civilian travel because it would cut into their earnings from monopoly control of black-market goods.

The assault on Bihac, the thwarted airport opening and other sporadic attacks threaten to undermine the Carter cease-fire, which has brought about one of the longest peaceful periods since Serbs rebelled against Bosnian independence in April, 1992.