US satellites track down missing air-drop crates

US OFFICIALS described the air drop into eastern Bosnia as a success yesterday despite the targeted Muslims reporting no sign of the 14 tons of ready-to-eat meals and basic medicines. One government minister said they had fallen into Serbian hands.

But UN and US military sources said last night that US satellites had located some of the crates lying untouched on the ground. Grid references for at least four of them had been given to the UN peace-keeping force in Sarajevo to be passed to the Muslim-led Bosnian government. One source said that one crate had landed about 1,000 feet from the centre of the drop zone.

The target of the two US C-130 Hercules planes based in Frankfurt was Cerska, the most needy of half a dozen Muslim enclaves under Serbian siege. The enclave, a few miles east of the Bosnian Serb stronghold of Zvornik, has received no outside help since the civil war started 11 months ago.

But crestfallen leaders in Cerska said local people had spotted only a couple of boxes, which could be the US food parcels, lying behind the Serbian lines.

The planes flew at an altitude of two miles over Cerska, which covers 40 square miles, but is shrinking fast under Serb assault.

Ismet Mustafic, a radio ham in Cerska, said Serb troops entered part of the enclave early yesterday after a night's artillery bombardment. Thousands of villagers had fled to woods and mountains, or across Serbian lines. 'Cerska is burning . . . they are attacking from all sides, on all lines.'

Most Serbs trudging over the bridge from Serbia to Zvornik were unaware the air drop was taking place. There is no shortage of food here; in Zvornik's Red Cross office, UN food parcels were piled to the ceiling. 'We are not interested in the operation,' a Bosnian Serb policeman said. 'We are just sceptical. How would you feel if someone were to drop packages over your country?'

In New York, the Bosnian Serb leader, Radovan Karadzic, conferred for more than two hours yesterday with the mediators Lord Owen and Cyrus Vance and said efforts should be made to stop the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina immediately.