Fighting rages in Gorazde, 50 dead so far

SARAJEVO (Reuter): Serb and Bosnian forces clashed anew around Gorazde yesterday as the Serb assault on the eastern Bosnian town went into its second week.

The Serb artillery and tank attack on the Bosnian government enclave which began on March 29 has killed 49 people and wounded 218, most of them civilians, a United Nations spokesman said.

"The situation on the southern front line is getting worse," a radio operator in Gorazde said on Sarajevo radio. "The noose around Gorazde is tightening."

Kris Janowski, spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said the casualty toll had been confirmed by two UN doctors working at Gorazde's main hospital. Several dozen wounded needed to be evacuated for proper treatment.

The latest fighting followed a report on Monday from Sarajevo radio that Serb forces had broken through the front line at one point. The Bosnian Serb news agency said yesterday that "defeated" Moslem forces were withdrawing in disarray along a key road.

A UN military spokesman reported Serb artillery and tank bombardments in parts of the Gorazde pocket on Monday but said there was no evidence the Serbs had gained significant ground.

Maj. Rob Annink told a news conference in Sarajevo Serb forces were concentrating their attack on routes going into Gorazde from the east.

Sarajevo radio said 24 people were wounded and an unknown number killed in a Serb assault on Gorazde overnight -- two years to the day after the first victim of the war in Bosnia was killed in nearby Sarajevo.

The Yugoslav news agency Tanjug quoted Serb army sources as saying 100 Bosnian soldiers were believed killed.

Neither account could be independently verified as the latest UN casualty toll only went up to Monday evening.

Tanjug said the Bosnian army had launched "desperate attacks on all parts of the front", while Moslem-controlled Sarajevo radio said parts of the city were being destroyed by Serb howitzers.

Tanjug said the Bosnian forces had fired more than 1,000 mortar rounds at Serb positions over the past seven days.

The United Nations on Monday announced plans to send additional military observers immediately to Gorazde and 1,000 Ukrainian peacekeeping troops within the next week or so.

The British UN commander for Bosnia, Lt. Gen. Sir Michael Rose, said he would visit the area today.

UN sources said the Serbs had refused him permission but he still planned to make the trip.

Rose has said he doubted the Serbs were able to capture Gorazde, where 65,000 people are trapped.

The Serbs on Monday blocked plans to send in four more military observers to join an existing four-man team. Apart from a few aid workers and doctors, they are the only international presence in Gorazde, supposedly a UN "safe haven".

Aid officials said the Serbs had refused entry to UN and Red Cross convoys on Monday. The last UN aid convoy entered Gorazde on March 22, a week before the latest Serb assault, but Janowski said food stocks were adequate for the time being.

"Those supplies are going to be running out soon and we desperately want more convoys," said Ron Redmond, spokesman in Geneva for the UNHCR.