The most severe fighting in Bosnia is recorded near Serb corridor in the north of the state, where numerous Serb military vehicles are under Bosnian army and HVO artillery fire, said the UN spokesman A. Ivanko. Shelling of a vital Serb corridor Sunday in response to Serb troop and military equipment movement through the area. BH sources state that "Yugoslav military" has arrived from Serbia attacking the Brka-Vranovaca frontline, south from Brcko. It is a vital Serb military corridor only 4 km wide. Bosnian army and HVO forces has undertaken a counter attack near Gradacac and by unconfirmed reports, has liberated the village of Krecane. B-H army assault continues on Mt. Ozren - the 2nd Corps has liberated 25O sq km. Large area is liberated by the 3rd Corps. Bosansko Petrovo Selo, a Serb stronghold on Mt. Ozren is semi-besieged.
Ivanko said that there were arround 3,000 armed incidents in Bosnia and Herzegovina for the past 24 hours, 152 in Sarajevo.
The US-lead peace drive in Bosnia, which looked near collapse on Sunday, was patched together a day later in New York, but not without hurriedly called meetings in Secretary of State Warren Christopher's hotel and a series of emergency calls to Sarajevo. The Bosnian government wanted guarantees that nationalist Bosnian Serbs would not one day secede from the republic. They apparently received that assurance from the US delegation, and agreed to join Tuesday's talks. Secretary of State said that "Tuesday's meeting will be a success if the parties adopt a set of constitutional principles, adopt the form of a superstructure that would move the Geneva agreement one step further forward. What they'll be talking about tomorrow is the connective tissue between the two entities that were spelled out in the Geneva agreement." "I want to make clear here that the US will oppose any settlement in Bosnia and Herzegovina that would undermine its territorial integrity or its continuation as a single state," Christopher added. The nationalist Bosnian Serbs are represented by Yugoslav Foreign Minister Milutinovic. Their direct representative Nikola Koljevic is expected to take part in Tuesday's negotiations. Bosnian Prime Minister Haris Silajdzic said that the new agreement "reconfirms" that the country will remain unified. "It will have a constitution, a parliament, a government ... all the attributes of a state," Silajdzic said. Bosnian Foreign Minister Muhamed Sacirbey said that one of the key concerns for the Bosnian Government is that "we want to make sure that there are truly democratic elections that would establish a government for Bosnia and Herzegovina." But Christopher's optimism may not be enough to salvage Tuesday's talks in New York. Late Monday, administration sources close to the negotiations gave the talks little chance of producing an agreement. "They're still way apart and I'm not sure it's going to happen," an administration official told CNN.
According to Croatian Foreign Minister, Mate Granic, who spoke to the media following a meeting of the Foreign Ministers of Bosnia, Yugoslavia and Croatia Belgrade is still failing to accept an agreement on Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Srijem as part of the overall peace-package.
In other developments, ten Senate Republicans sent a letter to President Clinton Monday, accusing the administration of failing to consult Congress on its plans for participating in a peacekeeping force in Bosnia. They said that the commitment of US troops should be submitted to Congress for its approval. They also said that Congress should know what promisses have been made to NATO and whether Russian or Middle Eastern troops would be involved. The letter also calls on President Clinton to reverse his opposition to lifting the arms embargo on Bosnia to allow Bosnians to fight until there is a stable military balance. The lawmakers question whether US troops should be deployed to partition an independent country and they threaten to oppose any settlement of the conflict not fully supported by the Sarajevo Government.
German Vice Chancellor and Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel endorsed the plan of operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina comprised in four points based on the existing international approach to Bosnia. Fist, cease-fire and cessation of hostilities should be established in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Then, parties to the conflict, with the international mediation, "within reasonable period of time" should agree on details of the peace settlement, with previously defined principles. Third, sending international troops, and fourth - extensive assistance for reconstruction and development of the areas devastated in war. The plan was presented to the European Union statesmen at the meeting in Mallorca (Baleari). The US president Clinton was informed on details in a phone talk with German chancellor Kohl. In the talk, Kohl and Clinton concluded that USA and Germany shared the same views on Bosnia and Herzegovina.
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata urged the Croatian Government to reconsider a directive revoking the refugee status of tens of thousands of Bosnians in Croatia. The directive stated that the refugees would be returned to Bosnia and Herzegovina in cooperation with the Bosnian Government and Bosnian Croat authorities. Mrs. Ogata said the ill-timed directive could mean the forced return of refugees to an area that was neither safe nor prepared to receive them. Such an action would violate the fundamental principle of non-refoulement contained in the 1951 Geneva Convention on the Status of Refugees, to which Croatia was a signatory. Any large-scale repatriation must be dealt with in the context of the overall peace process, in accordance with international standards, she stressed.