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Bombings Fuel Fears of Increasing Nationalist Violence in Bosnia
The incidents, which caused no injuries,
By Mark Heinrich
The incidents, which caused no injuries, followed
tit-for-tat firebombings of Muslim and Croat religious and
cultural sites and emphasised the fragility of Bosnia's
Muslim-Croat post-war federation.
U.N. spokesman Alex Ivanko said a bomb outside a
Muslim-owned home used by international police monitors in the
town of Livno blew up early on Sunday, destroying a truck belong
to the Muslim.
Five hours later, a bomb exploded beneath a car belonging to
the Livno branch of a Muslim humanitarian agency.
Ivanko expressed concern that the Bosnian Croat police had
taken six hours to respond to the first incident.
He said communal violence seemed to be escalating at a time
of political stalemate between Muslims and Croats in the divided
city of Mostar following disputed municipal elections.
Countrywide elections are due in Bosnia in September.
Last week, a bomb seriously damaged a Croat Catholic church
in the central Muslim-controlled town of Bugojno. The bombing
followed arson attacks on four other churches, and the
fire-bombing of a mosque in Croat-controlled Prozor.
Ejup Ganic, Muslim vice-president in the Sarajevo
government, said the security situation for remaining minority
Muslims in the Livno area had worsened since the European Union
validated the Muslims' electoral victory in Mostar.
A number of Muslim houses in Livno and nearby Glamoc had
been mined recently while two Muslim cars, buildings on a Muslim
farm and a Muslim shop had been blown up, a statement issued by
Ganic's office said.
It said a bomb was also found in another Muslim house in the
village of Kablici, outside Livno.
Separatist minority Croats and the Bosnian government waged
war in 1993-94 before U.S. pressure pushed them into a loose
federation. But the entity remains split into a Croat-held west
and Muslim-dominated centre. Serbs hold east and north Bosnia.
Bosnian Croat leader Kresimir Zubak accused the Bosnian
government over the weekend of orchestrating ethnic violence
behind a mask of support for a united, multi-cultural Bosnia.
A U.N. official, who asked not be named, criticised Zubak's
remarks as "inflammatory and unhelpful" and said a comment by
Bosnian Muslim President Alija Izetbegovic, warning of a new
threat of war with Croats, was ill-considered as well.
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SARAJEVO, July 29 (Reuters) - Two bombs destroyed vehicles
owned by Muslims in Croat-controlled western Bosnia over the
weekend in a worrying escalation of nationalist violence, the
U.N. said on Monday.
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