UN troops reach Sarajevo airport

A FORCE of 300 Canadian United Nations peace-keepers reached the airport of the besieged Bosnian capital yesterday, after their commander threatened to open fire on Bosnian fighters who blocked the convoy's route.

Colonel Michel Jones, commander of the UN troops, said an outbreak of fighting between UN peace-keepers and local militia had been perilously close in Donji Vakuf, a town tucked away in the mountains of northern Bosnia.

Col Jones deployed snipers and armoured personnel carriers to force what he called 'the local warlord and his band' - believed to be Bosnian Serbs - to back down and allow the UN force through.

'He threatened to shoot me if I crossed his roadblocks,' he said. 'I told the militia leader: 'If you attack, we will be forced to return fire.' I folded my map and said I was leaving.'

The arrival in Sarajevo airport of fresh UN forces brought new hope to the city's 300,000 inhabitants that a relief programme can begin. A further 450 peace-keepers, due to reach the airport last night, will allow distribution of the humanitarian aid which is being flown into the city.

In London the UN Secretary-General, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, said that a mixed force of about 1,500 UN troops - from France, Ukraine and Egypt - would be sent to Sarajevo, allowing the Canadian force to return to Croatia. Lord Carrington, the EC mediator on Yugoslavia, who met Mr Boutros-Ghali for talks, said he hoped to meet representatives of all three sides - Muslim, Serb and Croat - during his visit to Sarajevo today.

The first of four Hercules transport aircraft which Britain has placed at the disposal of the UN left RAF Lyneham yesterday for the Croatian capital, Zagreb, and thence for Sarajevo, carrying food.

Douglas Hurd, the Foreign Secretary, told Parliament that he was 'not particularly optimistic' about the next six months, and warned of 'further tragedies'. But he insisted that Britain, which assumed the presidency of the European Community this week, would play a leading role in efforts to end the fighting. Mr Hurd said he hoped to get a first-hand impression of what is happening when he visits the area in mid-July. 'I hope to go to as many of the Yugoslav republics as I can, and also to Tirana, the capital of Albania,' he said.

The airport is still dangerous, with warring Muslim and Serbian militias facing each other across the tarmac. As we drove into the airport from the Serbian-controlled barracks at Lukavica, machine-guns opened fire on our car from several houses. This exposed no-man's-land is nicknamed 'Death Row'; several cars pumped with bullet holes and spattered with blood bear testimony to the drivers who failed to make it.

Sarajevo airport is a shattered wreck, littered with shell cases and broken glass. The surrounding hills echo regularly to the sound of mortar bombs falling and exchanges of machine-gun fire.

UN chiefs say the peace-keeping force will not hesitate to open fire if the airport is attacked again. But the UN commander in Sarajevo, General Lewis MacKenzie, warned against false hopes that a peace-keeping force in the airport might end fighting in the city. 'We would need a massive force of thousands to occupy all the surrounding villages,' he said. 'We have to take this conflict out of the soldiers' hands and put it into the hands of the politicians.'

Further reports, page 9