Serbs bar relief to siege town

BOSNIAN Serb forces have blocked the passage of a United Nations aid convoy heading for the 70,000 starving people trapped in the Muslim enclave of Srebrenica, in eastern Bosnia, which has been under siege for 11 months. A second group, bound for Zepa, was also turned back.

The convoy of 20 trucks packed with food, medicine, blankets and plastic sheeting, was halted by a police roadblock at Bratunac, on the Serbian side of the Drina river which marks the border with Bosnia, because of 'a problem with clearance'.

General Philippe Morillon, head of UN forces in Bosnia, who is accompanying the lorries, protested strongly to the police, saying he was a 'personal guest' of President Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia, who had promised to ease the convoy's passage. General Morillon also held talks on Friday with General Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb commander, winning his approval for the convoy and for a ceasefire, due to begin today at noon.

Before leaving for Srebrenica, General Morillon said he was confident the ceasefire agreement, signed by all three warring factions in Belgrade on Friday, would hold. 'I am reasonably optimistic now because the ceasefire is the last chance for peace,' he said. Bosnian and UN military leaders are due to meet on 6 April at Sarajevo airport to consider how best to end the fighting.

The truce deal included free passage for the Srebrenica aid lorries, but the party managed to move only 2km before meeting the roadblock. The Bosnian Serbs had also accepted the principle of land and air corridors into Srebrenica, and the presence of UN troops in the town, General Morillon said. But when UN troops tried to evacuate the sick and wounded from the town last week, Serbian forces shelled them, killing two civilians and two peace-keepers.

The future of Srebrenica looks bleak if the convoy fails to arrive; a UN official said fresh snow had made conditions even more miserable. Louis Gentile, of the UN High Commission for Refugees, said patients with respiratory complaints and diarrhoea were being turned away from the hospital because of more serious complaints. Doctors found virtually everyone was malnourished.

Senior UN staff estimate that Srebrenica will fall to Serbian forces within two to three weeks unless it is relieved.

The Bosnian President, Alija Izetbegovic, yesterday said that the Bosnian Serbs had up to 10 days to sign an international peace plan for Bosnia drawn up by the UN mediators, Lord Owen and Cyrus Vance. The Muslims and the Croats have already signed the plan, but Mr Izetbegovic, speaking at Zagreb airport on his return from New York, said he would consider his own signature on behalf of the Muslims invalid if the Bosnian Serbs did not sign up too within that period. 'I think that the relevant people have already given them that deadline - eight to 10 days,' he said. The Bosnian Serb leader, Radovan Karadzic, has said he cannot back the deal because he does not accept maps detailing the division of Bosnia along ethnic lines. Of the agreement, Mr Karadzic said yesterday: 'First they satisfied the Croats, then the Muslims. Now they have to satisfy the Serbs.'

In Washington, President Bill Clinton promised pressure to get the Serbs on board, and again raised the possibility of relaxing the arms embargo against the Muslims - a suggestion unlikely to find favour with US allies.