
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, May 31, 1993                   TAG: 9305310089
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: HOLIDAY 
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: SARAJEVO, BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA                                LENGTH: Medium

REBELS BOMBARD SARAJEVO

Sarajevo suffered its heaviest bombardment in months Sunday after government forces broke through Serb artillery lines surrounding this devastated capital, and the rebels retaliated by shelling entrapped civilians.

The steady crash of shells into deserted, rubble-strewn streets and the constant whine of machine-gun and anti-aircraft rounds seemed to punctuate, with each impact, the ineffectiveness of the latest Western peace initiative that was supposed to protect Sarajevo and five other embattled cities.

One of the other proposed safe areas, the eastern city of Gorazde, has been pounded for three days by an even more intense artillery assault, and the Serb attackers were reported to have broken through the beleaguered enclave's last line of defense.

Government-controlled Sarajevo Radio said that the rebels had overrun Gorazde after inflicting heavy casualties in an assault that rained more than 1,000 shells on the town the previous day. Thousands were attempting to flee the city, the broadcast reported.

The radio report could not be verified for lack of U.N. or other Western observers in the besieged city. But if Serbs have indeed penetrated government defenses, the city of refuge for 70,000 that has defiantly withstood Serbian siege for more than a year could be on the verge of falling.

U.N. military observers have tried three times in the past several days to reach Gorazde to assess the situation, and have each time been turned back by Serbian gunmen, said Cmdr. Barry Frewer, spokesman for the U.N. Protection Force in Bosnia.

The situation in Sarajevo, where nearly 400,000 residents and refugees are encircled by Serb artillery, was equally desperate after one of the most intensive and sustained assaults this year.

Heavy shelling that had abated late Saturday resumed with stunning force at 4:30 a.m. Sunday, raining dozens of shells per minute for the next hour and a half.

Frewer said that during a 17-hour period that included the dawn battle, U.N. military observers in the capital counted 310 mortar and heavy artillery impacts in the government-held city center - presumably fired from Serb positions - and three blasts in Serb-held areas.

by CNB