Second Peacekeeper Killed in Sarajevo; French Mull Pullout

Sniper fire killed the second French U.N. soldier in as many days Saturday as the Bosnian capital slid closer to renewed, all-out war.

The French soldier, identified as Eric Hardoin, was slain on Sarajevo’s notorious “sniper alley” while getting out of a white U.N. forklift that was placing anti-sniper barricades along the treacherous road.

A U.N. spokeswoman, Capt. Myriam Sochacki, said Hardoin was shot in the chest. At least three shots were fired, with one smashing through the forklift’s windshield, said U.N. investigators at the scene. Peacekeepers returned fire.

But like the previous day, when a peacekeeper was killed in the front-line neighborhood of Dobrinja, it was unclear who fired.

A U.N. spokesman, Lt. Col. Gary Coward, said an investigation into Friday’s killing had proved inconclusive. He said the shot could have been fired by either side--the Bosnian army or rebel Serbs--although the army positions were more likely.

France reacted with outrage to the second death. Prime Minister Edouard Balladur, trailing Paris Mayor Jacques Chirac in polls before the April 23 presidential election, immediately dispatched Defense Minister Francois Leotard to Sarajevo.

Leotard expressed “indignation and rage” at the deaths and said that as no diplomatic solution to the Bosnian crisis appeared close, France would discuss a possible U.N. withdrawal with its allies.

France has contributed more soldiers to the U.N. mission in Bosnia than any other nation: 4,200 of the 24,000-member force.

Since early 1992, 159 peacekeepers have been killed throughout the former Yugoslav federation, including 33 French soldiers. Hardoin was the 58th peacekeeper to be killed in a combat-related incident.