In a symbolic move on the eve of a Bosnian Serb referendum, a specially convened group of Yugoslav lawmakers endorsed a U.N.-backed peace initiative for Bosnia on Friday.
The vote was intended to show the way for Bosnian Serbs, who will determine the fate of the long-debated international plan at their weekend referendum.The referendum is to be held Saturday and Sunday in areas of Bosnia-Herzegovina controlled by ethnic Serbs, who had been aided by Serb-dominated Yugoslavia.
Even though Friday's vote had no official effect on Bosnian events, Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, who organized the session, called it "an important step" toward peace. "I'm for peace with all my heart," he told Belgrade TV.
But a Bosnian Serb delegation observing the proceedings denounced the move as illegitimate.
"We will simply ignore it and follow what our people will say at the referendum," said Biljana Plavsic, the Bosnian Serbs' vice president.
Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic signed the peace plan May 2 but made his acceptance conditional on endorsement by the self-proclaimed Bosnian Serb parliament. The assembly rejected it but said a referendum should deliver the final verdict.
Bosnian Muslims and Croats, the Bosnian Serbs' foes, have already accepted the plan. But all three factions have been locked in battles despite repeated truce attempts.
Bosnian Serbs have opposed the peace plan, partly because it would keep them from linking areas they control in Bosnia with Serbia and Serb-held territories in Croatia.
If Bosnian Serb voters reject the plan - as is expected - debate over Western military intervention will likely intensify between the United States and its reluctant Western allies.
The war erupted last year after Muslims and Croats voted for Bosnia's independence from Serb-dominated Yugoslavia. At least 134,000 people have been killed or are missing.Lawmakers of the two republics remaining in Yugoslavia, Serbia and Montenegro, held Friday's vote along with Yugoslavia's federal Parliament to show support for the peace plan - and get Bosnian Serbs to approve it.
Yugoslavia, squeezed by U.N. sanctions imposed because of its military support for the Bosnian Serb rebels, recently began supporting the peace plan.
There was no sign the Bosnian war was abating Friday. The Muslim-led Bosnian government troops fought desperately on two fronts: in the north against Serbs and in the south against Croats, their former allies.
The United Nations condemned the "extremely serious" violations of a 5-day-old cease-fire by Bosnian Serbs, on the offensive against government forces clinging to the outskirts of the strategic northern town of Brcko.
There was heavy shelling in the Brcko area, said Peter Osborne, a U.N. spokesman in Zagreb. Bosnian radio reported that 20 civilians, including two children, were killed. There was no independent confirmation.
Jovan Divjak, deputy commander of the Bosnian army, said his troops were fighting fierce, close-quarter battles with Bosnian Serbs who were heavily shelling the area.
Cmdr. Barry Frewer, the spokesman for U.N. forces in Sarajevo, reported sniping between Muslims and Croats in the southwestern Bosnian city of Mostar, and said there were Muslim-Croat clashes in the central town of Vitez.