Weary of waiting for outside help, the Bosnian government scored a major combat victory Friday and revealed details of its first direct diplomatic contact with Serbia's president, a longtime enemy.
Bosnia seemed to be trying to demonstrate with military and diplomatic initiatives that it is capable of controlling its own destiny after nearly three years of devastating warfare.The battlefield breakthrough came on sprawling Mount Vlasic, just north of Travnik in central Bosnia, where army sources said government troops seized control of a strategic communications tower from rebel Bosnian Serbs.
Bosnian Serb military sources conceded the situation in the area was "critical" but did not confirm the loss of the tower, a vital military communications link between Serb territories in western and southern Bosnia.
Government forces closed in on another communications tower in the Majevica mountains near the government stronghold of Tuzla in northeast Bosnia.
Bosnian Serb military sources said their forces were on the counterattack and no longer encircled. But U.N. military spokesmen indicated the Serb position was tenuous at best.
The Bosnian Serb leader, Radovan Karadzic, toured the Majevica battlefront Friday and said his forces would not agree to extend a tattered four-month cease-fire that expires May 1.
"The Serb side has a legitimate right to use all means available to counterattack," he said.
While the fighting raged, a group of Serbs loyal to the Muslim-led Bosnian government arrived in the Yugoslav capital of Belgrade to meet Serbian opposition groups.
Their trip followed a surprise meeting Tuesday in Belgrade between Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic and Bosnian diplomat Muhamed Filipovic - the first direct contact between Belgrade and Sarajevo during the war without international mediation.