Croats taken from UN convoy

SARAJEVO (AP) - Bosnian-Serb soldiers yesterday seized two Croats from a United Nations armoured vehicle as they left Sarajevo on a peace mission. The Serbs stopped six Croats travelling with the UN, including Msgr Vinko Puljic, the archbishop of the Roman Catholic Church in Bosnia, four of whom were later released.

The Croats and their UN escorts, in three French armoured personnel carriers, were stopped at a Serbian checkpoint as they headed toward Vares, in central Bosnia, hoping to ease tensions there after fighting between Croats and the Muslim-led Bosnian army.

A UN spokesman said about 50 Serbian soldiers surrounded the vehicles and abducted two of the Bosnian-Croats saying they were war criminals. The two, Jozo Andjic and Ferdo Dejanovic, were taken to a police station.

The incident, in a Serb-held suburb, highlights the low level of respect many have for UN troops.

Six buses began leaving Sarajevo for Belgrade with Serbian women, children and elderly men. Jarle Thorgersen, a logistics officer of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said 642 people were to be evacuated from Sarajevo in stages.