Truce Violations Reported But Much Of Bosnia Is Calm Under Fragile Cease-Fire

Much of Bosnia remained calm Thursday on the first day after the latest cease-fire was supposed to take effect, but the sounds of continued war boomed through this valley in the northwest, where Bosnian and Serb forces have been battling for strategic territory over the last few weeks.

So far, neither side in this nearly four-year-old war is talking about aborting the cease-fire agreement or derailing the peace talks that are scheduled to begin at the end of this month in the United States, then shift to France.

But the Bosnian government and the Bosnian Serbs traded charges Thursday that each was violating the truce in this hotly contested region where, over the last two days as the original target date for a cease-fire was delayed, government forces have pushed back the Serbs and progressed toward Banja Luka, the largest Serb-held city in Bosnia.

Thursday night, a Serb-controlled radio station in Prijedor reported that the Bosnian army was shelling a road leading to Banja Luka from Sanski Most, a town that government forces retook this week.

Details of possible cease-fire violations in northwestern Bosnia are extremely limited because Bosnian military authorities have barred foreign military observers, reporters and even international humanitarian aid agencies from the region.

“There have been some firing incidents,” said Ludo Hupperts, a United Nations spokesman in Sarajevo, of the overall situation around the country. “But you cannot expect two armies who have been confronting each other for the past 3-1/2 years to all of a sudden shake hands and say it’s all over. We are still very confident that each side will keep to the agreement.”

With the risk of sniping and shelling reduced, people in Sarajevo crowded the city’s cafes.

Outside the northwestern war zone, where they have been kept out, U.N. monitors reported only 14 cease-fire violations Thursday. All of the reports concerned explosions - two near Sarajevo, two in central Bosnia and 10 near the town of Doboj, which is besieged by the Bosnian army.

No injuries were reported, and the monitors said they could not determine what had caused the explosions, although they assumed it was shelling.