Food Trucks Reach Bihac Region Thousands Of Civilians Threatened With Starvation

Trucks carrying food to thousands of civilians threatened with starvation came under fire Wednesday but safely reached Bosnia’s governmentcontrolled northwest Bihac region.

The convoy - 10 food trucks from the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and 10 U.N. supply trucks for peacekeepers - moved through territory controlled by an ally of the Bosnian Serb rebels, Muslim warlord Fikret Abdic.

The convoy was allowed through after the Bosnian government threatened to break a four-month ceasefire unless the food was delivered.

U.N. officer Col. Charles Lemieux said warning shots were fired over the first vehicle from positions controlled by Abdic’s forces. Nothing was hit, and no one was injured.

Another, smaller Red Cross convoy with medical supplies and food left the Croatian capital of Zagreb on Wednesday and was to arrive in Bihac today.

In Zagreb, the World Food Program reported serious malnutrition and hunger in northwest Bosnia.

Except for the northwest, a ceasefire has kept most of Bosnia quiet since Jan. 1. Sniper attacks Tuesday and Wednesday wounded two civilians in Sarajevo, the capital.

International efforts to find a permanent end to the war continued.

A U.S. official in Washington said Britain, France, Russia, Germany and the United States have approved a plan to temporarily lift U.N. economic sanctions against neighboring Serbia if it recognizes all former Yugoslav republics.

The plan, which is to be presented later this week to Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, aims to make the Bosnian cease-fire permanent and to prevent the war there from spilling over into Croatia. It would frustrate the Bosnian Serbs’ goal of uniting with Serbia to create a greater Serbia.