Bosnian Serbs Block Aid and Shell Town

BOSNIAN Serbs shelled Maglaj, an isolated town in northern Bosnia yesterday and blocked critical aid shipments for a second week.

UN officials and Bosnian radio reported heavy shelling of the town, and at least four people were killed despite a planned cease-fire.

Kris Janowski, a spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, accused the Serbs of deliberately blocking aid shipments to the Bosnian government-controlled enclave.

``The Serbs are dragging their feet,'' he said. ``They are obviously preventing us from getting in there.''

Bosnian Serbs refused permission last week for a relief convoy to Maglaj, claiming no high-level authorities were available to approve it. ``Now, there is no answer and no excuse,'' Mr. Janowski says. He also said that no confirmed information had been received about conditions in Maglaj for a month and a half, since no convoy has reached the town since Oct. 25.

On Sunday, government radio said Bosnian Serb planes attacked a bridge at Maglaj. But neither NATO nor the United Nations could confirm the report, and Bosnian Serbs ridiculed it.

In Sarajevo, Bosnian radio said that three government soldiers were wounded yesterday near the Jewish Cemetery, but otherwise, most of Bosnia was reported calm.

Meanwhile, a Bulgarian oil tanker broke a UN trade blockade on Serbia, after it was apparently hijacked by armed men who threatened to blow up the ship unless it was allowed to pass, the Bulgarian government reported.

The vessel, carrying 6,000 tons of diesel oil, had slipped out of the Danube port of Somovit Thursday without permission and had reached Serbia on Sunday.

A news report said that the ship had been allowed to cross into Serbia to avoid the risk of violence and pollution of the river, one of Europe's main waterways.