Bosnian Serb troops marched into the town of Zepa Tuesday, seizing the second U.N. "safe area" in as many weeks and sending frightened civilians fleeing.
Serbs are said to have killed and raped Muslims after overrunning Srebrenica, and there are fears for the safety of the thousands of civilians in Zepa.Bosnian Prime Minister Haris Silajdzic said earlier that most of Zepa's residents had fled to caves in the woods around the town, which has been under Serb assault for two weeks. Soldiers of the Muslim-led army also reportedly sought refuge in the woods and nearby villages.
Silajdzic appealed Tuesday for U.N. protection for the evacuation of soldiers and civilians to prevent the atrocities that occurred after the Serbs took Srebrenica, another Muslim enclave and U.N.-protected area in eastern Bosnia, two weeks ago to the day.
Zepa's fall leaves just one eastern government-controlled enclave, Gorazde. The fall of Gorazde would give Serbs a clear path between Sarajevo, Bosnia's capital, and Serbia. They aim to unite the more than 70 percent of Bosnian territory they control with Serbia, the dominant power in what is left of Yugoslavia.
Lt. Col. Chris Vernon, a U.N. spokesman in Sarajevo, said, "We can confirm from UNPROFOR presence on the ground that the Bosnian army no longer appear to be in Zepa town, and that the Bosnian Serb army soldiers are in Zepa."
Bosnian radio said government troops had left the town of Zepa for the woods and high ground around it, in an attempt to defend the larger enclave. There is still a "substantial stretch of territory" controlled by government troops, the radio said.
There are about 20 villages in the Zepa enclave, bloated with refugees to a population of between 10,000 and 16,000. It was not clear how many of the villages had been abandoned. Serbs put the enclave's population at 7,000.Silajdzic said an evacuation of the enclave without U.N. protection would mean certain death. "This happened in Srebrenica and as a result thousands of people are missing and most of them are probably dead by now," he said.
The U.N. special envoy for human rights, Tadeusz Mazowiecki, on Monday cited "barbarous" acts of terror committed on an enormous scale by Bosnian Serbs after they marched into Srebrenica. Serbs deported thousands of women and children, but about 7,000 people are missing.
The 16 NATO nations, including the United States, vowed on Friday to get tough against Serb aggression, but the United Nations has virtually ruled out airstrikes to defend Zepa.
NATO airplanes have flown over Zepa just once in the nearly two weeks that the mountainous enclave has been under bombardment.
Vernon said Monday there could be no airstrikes because the peacekeepers there did not have the means to direct alliance gunners to their targets in Zepa's rough terrain.
Another government enclave, Bihac in the northwest, was also under siege. Rebel Serbs made significant gains in the area over the past few days. But they avoided targeting the "safe area" of Bihac town.
The conflict in the Bihac enclave is particularly dangerous, because Croatia has promised to help Bosnian government troops there to fend off attacks from Serbs allied with renegade Muslims.