A town lying in the path of Serbs

THE Blue Guide to Yugoslavia has little to say of Gorazde, 'a modern industrial town' where 'the highway designation changes from N20 to N5'. But it is enough to spell doom for the 65,000 inhabitants of the Gorazde pocket under attack by Bosnian Serb forces. The N5 runs from the Adriatic coast to the heart of Serbia, along the route of the ancient caravan trail used by merchants to send their wares from Dubrovnik to Belgrade and beyond. As such, it is also the road that would link Serb-held areas of south-western Bosnia to their territorial gains in the east.

The nondescript town sits in the spectacular Drina valley, surrounded by mountains and virgin forests inhabited - pre-war, at least - by bears and eagles. It is cut in two by the deep green Drina river, where fishermen could hope to hook a 40lb salmon. There were around 3,500 townspeople before the war, most of them Muslims, while the enclave itself held around 37,000. Before the latest Serb offensive, the population was estimated at around 65,000 and, in the past few days, thousands more have fled.

In June, the town was declared a 'safe area' by the UN - a label that has, until now, done little for its people. Even as the international community declared its intention to protect Gorazde, the Serbs tightened the noose around the area, cutting off a hazardous mountain trail used to supply Gorazde with food. Much of the town has been destroyed by Serbian shells which fell up to 2,000 a day, and those who have visited the area say barely a building remains unscarred.

Lieutenant-General Sir Michael Rose has, over the past few weeks, played down the assault on the town, but like the other besieged enclaves of Maglaj and Bihac, Gorazde's misfortune has been its strategic value to the Serbs. Apart from its position on an important road, Gorazde is the site of a munitions factory, and thus, military analysts say, a target for the Serbs. Furthermore, this area of eastern Bosnia was the scene of important Second World War battles between the Communist-led Partisans and the Nazis, and was the site of numerous atrocities against Serbs by the Ustashe, supporters of the Croatian fascist government.