Bosnian Serb Gunners Hit U.N. Convoys for a Second Day

Raising further questions about the future of the United Nations in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbian separatists pummeled U.N. convoys with antiaircraft weapons Monday for the second day running. The U.N. response was swift but characteristically mild.

The attack on U.N. convoys navigating the perilous Mt. Igman road out of Sarajevo was the latest in a series of Serbian assaults on U.N. peacekeepers, whose reluctance to clash with the Serbs has rendered the U.N. mission largely impotent.

It followed a particularly bloody weekend in Sarajevo. Rebel Serbs lobbing shells into the capital killed 16 people and wounded more than 100, according to the Bosnian Health Ministry.

French peacekeepers responded to Monday’s Mt. Igman attack and an almost identical one Sunday by firing 120-millimeter mortars at rebel positions. The Serbs, however, apparently retaliated Sunday by shelling the U.N. headquarters in central Sarajevo, wounding four U.N. peacekeepers and a guard at the U.S. Embassy next door.

Although it is rare for U.N. personnel to return fire at all, the response was a mild one given the level of harassment that U.N. resupply convoys have suffered.

“Both parties are yet again reminded of the protected status of civilians and U.N. peacekeepers and are urged to make every effort to avoid collateral casualties,” U.N. spokesman Lt. Col. Gary Coward said.

Late last week, the U.N. headquarters and three other U.N. bases or observation posts came under nearly simultaneous Bosnian Serb attack in what Coward said was the first coordinated offensive against the United Nations.

Attacked by the Serbs and scorned by the Bosnian government, the United Nations is being forced to re-examine its purpose and mission.

Bosnian government officials are increasingly impatient with the U.N. mission and are publicly questioning its role here because it no longer fulfills the basics of its mandate, such as the distribution of food aid.

“They have lost all their jobs--NATO ultimatum, escort of convoys, humanitarian aid, the airport--so we are asking them what they are doing here,” Hasan Muratovic, the government minister in charge of all dealings with the United Nations, said last week.

Muratovic said he will no longer meet or communicate with the U.N. special envoy to the Balkans, Yasushi Akashi, because of what the government perceives as Akashi’s favoritism toward the Serbs.

Late last month, Bosnian Prime Minister Haris Silajdzic condemned the United Nations as an “accomplice to genocide” for its failure to stop the war.

Such talk comes amid speculation that the United Nations may withdraw from Bosnia altogether.

Coward acknowledged Monday that the United Nations has more troops in Sarajevo--nearly 5,000--than there are jobs for them, especially since they stopped guarding heavy weapons taken from Serbs and stopped escorting aid convoys.