Serb-led forces captured another major city in Bosnia-Herzegovina on Friday, and U.N. envoy Cyrus Vance warned that time was running out to end ethnic conflict.
Several hundred people have died in clashes pitting Serbs against Muslims and Croats since the republic voted for independence on Feb. 29. Serbs, about one-third of the population, oppose Bosnian statehood and wish to remain linked to Serbia, the largest of the six former Yugoslav republics. An estimated 200,000 Bosnians have fled their homes in fighting.After capturing the city of Visegrad on Thursday, Serb-led forces Friday marched into Foca, about 30 miles southeast of Sarajevo. It was the fourth key Bosnian city to fall to Serbian forces.
After about two weeks of fighting in Foca, Serb and Muslim houses were burning, 200 displaced children were living in the darkened city hospital and food was running low, said Fabrizio Hoch-schild, spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.
He described the situation there as "among the worst I have seen."
Tanjug said Serb forces imposed a curfew on the city, and military courts were being established.
Elsewhere, the main Bosnian Muslim party alleged in a statement that 14 Muslim civilians were massacred overnight in the village of Kolibe near Bosanski Brod, on Bosnia's border with Croatia.
Sarajevo radio said eight more people were killed and 35 wounded in fighting elsewhere Friday.
Hochschild said six of his agency's trucks, carrying enough aid for 15,000 people, were stopped at gunpoint Thursday in Serb-held areas of Bosnia. Food and medicine on the trucks were confiscated, he said.
In Sarajevo, mortar and machine-gun battles broke out Friday. Armed police officers guarded Sarajevo's cathedral, where 300 people attended Good Friday Mass.
After meeting Croatian President Franjo Tudjman, Vance said finding peace in Bosnia would be "very, very difficult" although the leaders of the three ethnic groups had recognized "there will be no winners" if the fighting intensifies.
Despite the verbal commitments, Serb fighters and federal troops continue to seize Bosnian territory adjacent to Serbia, apparently with the idea of annexing it.
Croatian and Muslim forces seem to be trying to grab hold of other territories in the south.
Sources close to Vance said he had warned Tudjman not to interfere in Bosnia's affairs. On Thursday, Tudjman demanded that Serbia and the Serb-led Yugoslav army halt their offensives in the republic.