More fearful Serbs fled lawless Sarajevo suburbs on Sunday, and a U.N. aid official accused the NATO-led peace force of not offering enough protection.
Two days before Ilidza was to be handed over to Bosnia's Muslim-Croat federation, fires burned in a music school, two factories, a pharmacy and an apartment building in the largely deserted Serb suburb. Dozens of people waited at a wrecked streetcar terminal for rides to Serb-held areas.A mother and her two children stood weeping outside one burning building. French NATO troops first stood and watched, then tried to put out the blaze when more troops arrived and orders apparently had been changed.
Serb gangs intent on proving that Bosnians cannot live together have been blamed for intimidation, arson and a reported murder designed to drive Serbs out of the two remaining Sarajevo suburbs not yet under federation control.
Local sources have told international police monitors that more than 200 buildings and houses would be burned down in the areas in the next 48 hours, spokesman Alexander Ivanko said Sunday.
U.N. and NATO officials say Serb gangs apparently are being directed by the hard-line leadership in the Bosnian Serb stronghold of Pale.
The Serb mayor of Ilidza, Nedjeljko Prstojevic, appealed to truck owners to assemble in the suburb on Monday to help evacuate remaining civilians, the Bosnian Serb news agency SRNA reported.
The suburb of Grbavica was already virtually deserted. "The atmosphere is really bad and everybody is going to leave," said Veselinka Risic, a 57-year-old widow.
Under the Bosnian peace agreement, the whole Sarajevo region is to be reunified by March 19 under the control of the Muslim-Croat federation that is to govern half of Bosnia. Most Serbs have deserted the city's five Serb-held districts, fearing reprisals when their wartime enemies take over.
International civilian officials said NATO should do more to respond to the security vacuum as Serb police withdraw or stand by and federation police are not yet in place.
The 60,000-member NATO-led force has refused to carry out police duties for fear of getting drawn into conflict with the enemy sides.
At a meeting Sunday, representatives from NATO, the U.N. civilian police, Bosnian Serbs and the Muslim-Croat federation agreed on a number of measures to help improve security for those Serbs who choose to stay.
The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees will set up "safe houses" for Serbs who stay in Ilidza and Grbavica that would be protected by international police and NATO forces. Firefighters of the Muslim-Croat federation would enter the Serb-held areas with NATO escort and protection.