Serbs stopped the U.N. commander from visiting Gorazde Wednesday, but their advance into the besieged Muslim enclave slowed and they proposed new talks on a cease-fire for all of Bosnia.
Lt. Gen. Sir Michael Rose's attempt to personally assess the situation in the eastern enclave came after Serb troops broke through outer defense lines and fought their way to within a few miles of the town of Gorazde. Hundreds of civilians reportedly fled burning villages on Gorazde's outskirts.Rose was halted at Pale, the Serb headquarters just southeast of Sarajevo, but Serb officials did let three U.N. military observers and eight of Rose's liaison officers proceed.
Speaking on the second anniversary of the outbreak of the Bosnian war, Rose said he was told he should not go to Gorazde because of safety problems.
"We're not an army of occupation," he told reporters at Pale. "We've got to accept the fact that if the Serbs say the situation is such that they don't want us to go there now, we have to accept that."
He said Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic had proposed a meeting with military leaders of Bosnia's Muslim-led government to discuss an overall cease-fire.
Serbs and the Bosnian government have mostly observed a truce around Sarajevo since Feb. 10, but fighting has continued elsewhere in the former Yugoslav republic.
Bosnia's war erupted two years ago when the Serb minority, armed by the Yugoslav federal army, rebelled over independence from Yugoslavia and grabbed 70 percent of the republic. At least 200,000 people are dead or missing.