UN agreement reopens relief route to Sarajevo

The relief supply route into Sarajevo was reopened yesterday as Serbian tanks rained shells on the Bosnian capital, wounding scores of people.

Food and medical supplies are expected to roll in shortly, after a four-day dispute was ended between embattled Bosnian forces and United Nations peace-keepers, over the control of the road leading from the airport into the city.

Bosnian forces barricaded the road last week, fearing Serbs might use the no man's land to force their way into the city, which has been under siege for nearly seven months. Under the deal the UN is free to use the road by day to shuttle relief supplies, while Bosnian forces will shut the road by night.

While UN officials were thankful that tons of aid piling up at the airport was at last being distributed, they stressed that the new agreement does not diminish the threat of death by starvation or cold which confronts Sarajevo's 350,000 civilians.

Already in the grip of freezing winter fogs, thousands of Sarajevo's mostly Muslim inhabitants are expected to die in the coming months if aid supplies are not massively increased. Electricity and water supplies have been cut by Serbian shelling for several weeks. At the same time, the UN suspended deliveries to Sarajevo along the Croat-controlled road leading through Mostar, in southern Bosnia, after two convoys were shelled.

The restoration of the land corridor to Sarajevo is vital if the city is to survive the winter. Bad weather renders the airport unusable for much of the winter, even in normal conditions. The UN needs the land route to bring in huge quantities of plastic sheeting, to make temporary roofs and windows for the city, as well as to bring in food.

The Serbian offensive to crush the remaining Bosnian pockets appears to gather strength daily. Heavy shelling of Sarajevo yesterday wounded about 90 people, while fierce Serbian attacks were also under way against Olovo, in central Bosnia, and against Maglaj, Orasje and Gradacac in northern Bosnia.

A UN team was expected in the Serbian stronghold of Banja Luka to monitor the withdrawal to Yugoslavia of fighter planes held by the Bosnian Serbs. Under an agreement reached with the peace envoy, Lord Owen, which some local Serbian commanders have denounced as invalid, the Bosnian Serb leader, Radovan Karadzic, has agreed to hand over the planes, following a UN ban on military flights over Bosnia.

The President of the rump Yugoslavia, Dobrica Cosic, before flying to Geneva to meet Bosnian and Croatian leaders, yesterday said he backed plans to lift the siege of Sarajevo and demilitarise the surroundings. He said he supported the plan 'not to fulfil international demands for the lifting of sanctions against Yugoslavia, but for moral and humane reasons, and to end the suffering'.

Mr Cosic at the weekend clashed with supporters of the hardline nationalist President of Serbia, Slobodan Milosevic, after he called on Mr Milosevic to resign. Western diplomats have let it be known that until Mr Milosevic - held most responsible for the violence in Yugoslavia - is ousted, there is no chance of lifting sanctions against Yugoslavia or ending the country's diplomatic isolation.

GENEVA - The Prime Minister of the rump Yugoslavia, Milan Panic, seeking an end to UN sanctions, offered the use of Yugoslav airports and 100 trucks for the international aid effort, AP reports. He also said that Yugoslavia was ready to recognise the breakaway Croatian republic and another former Yugoslav state, Macedonia.