Worst Fighting in Months Dims Bosnia Peace Hopes

The faltering truce in Bosnia-Herzegovina teetered near collapse Monday when heavy fighting broke out in central and northeastern Bosnia, killing and injuring dozens and dashing hopes that spring will bring a permanent thaw in the protracted civil war.

Officials with the U.N. Protection Force said early morning fighting in and around the towns of Travnik and Tuzla was the worst since the two sides launched a four-month cease-fire on Jan. 1 as part of a peace initiative by former President Jimmy Carter.

The battles came after more than a week of increasingly deadly flare-ups in Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital, including sniper fire that ripped a hole in an airplane carrying the U.N. special envoy to the former Yugoslav federation. Three people were killed in sniper attacks over the weekend, and at least a dozen have been gunned down since the cease-fire began.

“We are seriously concerned about the status of the cessation of hostilities agreement,” U.N. spokesman Christopher Gunnes said. “We are at the point where we are asking: ‘When can you say something is really dead?’ ”

The rugged, mountainous combat on Monday let up only when snowfall made it impossible to fight, a U.N. military official in Tuzla said. The official said both sides are expected to remain locked in their positions until the bad weather passes in a day or two.

Although U.N. spokesmen said restrictions on peacekeepers’ movements made it impossible to assign blame for the fighting, U.N. sources said it was clear that Bosnian government forces had been the aggressors.

The Muslim-led Bosnian army began the offensive before dawn, attacking vital communication towers on Bosnian Serb-held peaks above Tuzla and Travnik, the sources said.

Bosnian Serb news reports said the Bosnian Serb army had come under attack on Mt. Vlasic, northwest of Travnik, and on Mt. Majevica, northeast of Tuzla. The reports said the Bosnian Serbs were prepared for the assaults and had held off the government forces in hand-to-hand combat.

Military analysts said Bosnian government control of the two mountaintops would knock out vital communication links for Bosnian Serbs and lay the groundwork for a broader government offensive to recapture some of the 70% of territory controlled by the rebel Serbs.

The peak above Tuzla would also provide Muslim-led forces with a strategic vantage point to fire upon the Posavina corridor, the main supply route across northern Bosnia for Bosnian Serbs.

Although the renewed fighting took some U.N. officials by surprise, it was the timing of the offensive--not that it occurred--that appeared to catch them off guard. Just last week, U.N. special envoy Yasushi Akashi, who spent two days in Sarajevo trying unsuccessfully to bolster the truce, predicted renewed warfare if diplomatic efforts should fail.

“The situation is serious and I would even say critical,” Akashi said at the Sarajevo airport, where his plane had been hit by machine-gun fire. “Unless we do something in the next two or three weeks, a further degradation and resumption of fighting is feared.”

The commander of the Bosnian army was also quoted in Sarajevo’s leading daily newspaper last week as saying, “It is realistic to expect the war to continue.” Gen. Rasim Delic told the Oslobodjenje newspaper that he had made good use of the cease-fire to train and better organize his troops, which he said number about 200,000.

“The probability the war will continue is greater than the possibility there will be a just (negotiated) solution for Bosnia,” he was quoted by the newspaper as saying.

The situation in Sarajevo has grown so tense in recent weeks that the United Nations suspended all humanitarian relief flights into the city on March 11 and this weekend grounded military flights as well, after Bosnian Serbs fired on five aircraft landing at the airport in recent days.

At the same time, Bosnian Serb troops surrounding Sarajevo closed the only civilian supply roads into the city after two young Bosnian Serb girls were killed by Bosnian army snipers. Sarajevo radio on Monday warned residents to prepare for artillery attacks on the city at any time.

U.N. officials said Monday that at least 60 artillery and mortar shells exploded near Travnik in the morning and between 400 and 500 detonations were recorded in the Tuzla area by midafternoon.

The officials described the attacks as a coordinated assault by the Bosnian government.

The Bosnian Serbs retaliated by unloading on Tuzla. At least a dozen mortar shells fell on the government-controlled enclave, with one striking the Bosnian army barracks near the town center. Casualty reports varied, with the number of dead in the barracks alone possibly as high as 30. A U.N. spokesman said at least 150 people were being treated at the Tuzla hospital for shrapnel and bullet wounds.

“The thing about the enclaves is that they are easy targets,” U.N. spokesman Gunnes said. “It is like beating up on a small kid.”