French clear the way for UN convoy

(First Edition)

ZAGREB - French mine-clearing specialists yesterday drove from Sarajevo to rescue an eight-truck UN relief convoy stranded at a mined road bridge 10 miles outside Gorazde, after the convoy braved gunfire to deliver food and medical supplies to the besieged Muslim town, writes Tony Barber. It took the team about an hour to make the bridge safe.

'They headed off from the bridge towards Sarajevo a little before 6pm. They will stop somewhere overnight and aim to reach Sarajevo in the morning,' Ron Redmond, a spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said last night.

The relief workers unloaded 46 tons of aid at Gorazde's hospital on Saturday in the first successful UN mission to the town since it came under Serbian siege in April. The mission was considered a vital test of a UN Security Council resolution last week on the use of force to ensure aid reaches Bosnian towns. The UNHCR plans more convoys this week, including one to the Muslim town of Bihac in northern Bosnia, blockaded since last October.

Report, page 9