Bosnian Serb fighters pressed toward Gorazde Friday even as U.S. and U.N. officials sought to secure a cease-fire for all of Bosnia.
Both Bosnian government and Bosnian Serb media reported fighting Friday morning in the Gorazde region, and U.N. spokesman Maj. Rob Annink called the situation there "still unstable and tense."The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said Gorazde itself was relatively quiet Friday but that 16 people had been killed overnight. Annink said Serbs appeared to be about three miles from the town center.
The fighting around Gorazde, 35 miles southeast of Sarajevo, intensified two weeks ago. U.N. aid workers say 67 people have died and nearly 350 have been wounded. About 65,000 people, many of them refugees, live in the enclave.
The Serbs and the Muslim-led government have largely observed a truce in Sarajevo since Feb. 10, and a cease-fire between the Bosnian Croats and the government has held in central and southwest Bosnia since Feb. 25 as part of their U.S.-brokered federation.
But the battle for Gorazde has seemed to spark more fighting throughout Bosnia.
U.N. commander Lt. Gen. Sir Michael Rose, who presented the Serbs and the government with a cease-fire plan for Bosnia on Thursday, planned to continue his shuttle diplomacy today between the two sides.