Serbs halt aid to besieged enclave

BOSNIAN SERB forces yesterday held up a United Nations aid convoy bound for the besieged enclave of Maglaj for the third day, claiming they could not guarantee its security as it crossed the front line south of the town. Nine trucks carrying 80 tons of food have waited fruitlessly 6 miles from Maglaj, which has been cut off from the outside world since a UN convoy delivered aid in October.

Three journalists who spent two days in the enclave this week described the situation there as 'appalling'. Martin Dawes of the BBC said that the people of Maglaj appeared malnourished, with greying skin. There are no safe areas in the town, which has faced a fearsome offensive in the past week, as Bosnian Serb troops in the surrounding hills attack with artillery and snipers. Mr Dawes arrived during a lull in the fighting - during which a shell killed one woman and seriously injured six others, and snipers shot dead four people, including a 13-year-old girl.

Most of the town's 19,000 people are living in cramped cellars, Mr Dawes said, emerging whenever the shelling stops to collect their daily meal - beans and lentils - from collective kitchens. The hospital has no surgeon. Local soldiers claim Russian mercenaries are working on the Serbian side, using sniper rifles with a range of 1,000 metres - a particularly deadly weapon in an enclave that is only 2 miles by 3 miles.

Larry Hollingworth, head of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in the area, is extremely concerned about the situation in Maglaj, and eager to get a convoy in - as much for psychological as practical reasons. He fears the pocket could fall to besieging Serbian troops within weeks, creating yet another refugee crisis in Bosnia. 'If Maglaj fell I'd be very sad because 19,000 people would be refugees,' he said. 'They've already had an unbelievably miserable, medieval existence, and just when peace seems to be blossoming elsewhere . . . we should really try to help them hang on to their homes.'

ZAGREB - Bosnian Croats said yesterday they would not accept a federation with Muslims in Bosnia-Herzegovina unless it was linked to a confederation with Croatia proper, AFP reports. A statement setting this out said the decision had been taken by the 'Presidential Council'.