Star wars break out over seats to Sarajevo

A GROUP of actors and film-makers, including Oscar winners Daniel Day-Lewis, Jeremy Irons and Vanessa Redgrave, were yesterday barred from a United Nations relief flight to Sarajevo.

The group, who were hoping to open a film festival in the city, claimed they were told that they were on a British Government blacklist. But the Foreign Office strongly denied they had vetoed the trip.

Vanessa Redgrave, a veteran peace campaigner, said they were stopped from boarding a United Nations aid flight at Falconara airbase near the eastern Italian city of Ancona. It was the second refusal in 24 hours. She said: 'A directive was given by the British Government that we should not be permitted to fly.'

Ms Redgrave said the British members of the group had obtained press accreditation through the Foreign Office to enable them to travel as journalists on board UN flights to the besieged Bosnian capital. She said: 'We had work to do and we would not have been taking up anyone's place.'

After Friday's first failed attempt to reach Sarajevo for the ten-day film festival, which started yesterday, Mr Irons said he had been told that the group's members were on a British Government blacklist.

He said a worker with the UN's High Commissioner for Refugees told him he 'had been informed via the Foreign Office that Miss Redgrave and her companions should not be allowed on any flight.

Mr Irons said: 'We are very disappointed. We are sitting around here trying to work out where the order came from. It seems it came from very high up in the Foreign Office.'

A Foreign Office spokesman said: 'There is no question of a British Government veto, ban or blacklist.'

He said the Foreign Office had advised the group that UNHCR guidelines had been tightened recently for people wishing to travel on relief flights into the city.

'Only people with an operational necessity or those involved in the peace process are being allowed into the city now - cultural groups are not covered,' he said.

Mule train to Mostar, page 13

(Photographs omitted)