Serb Threat Closes Sarajevo Airport

For the second time in two days, rebel Serbs mocked U.N. control of the Sarajevo airport Wednesday, revoking promises not to shoot at planes and forcing a U.N. aircraft en route to the Bosnian capital to turn back.

U.N. officials closed the airport in protest.

Bosnian Serbs are demanding that U.N. planes stop flying people who hold passports from Bosnia’s Muslim-led government in return for promises not to shoot.

The United Nations said the flight Wednesday from Zagreb, Croatia, was a test of Bosnian Serb resolve to ban civilians from U.N. aircraft flying to and from Sarajevo.

Most of the humanitarian aid that reaches Sarajevo’s civilians comes through the airport, which Serbs turned over to U.N. control in 1992.