The International Committee of the Red Cross estimated up to 25,000 people, including entire families and farm animals, were in a UN-monitored sector of Croatia, on the border with Bosnia.
The civilians fled to the Serb-held area of Croatia on Sunday after the Bosnian Army's 5th Corps succeeded in its 11-month quest to quell the inter-Moslem fighting, led by Fikret Abdic.
Last fall, Abdic, a wealthy local businessman, proclaimed independence from Sarajevo for the so-called Bihac pocket of northwestern Bosnia and cut his own deal with the Serbs. Sunday's capture of Velika Kladusa, Abdic's stronghold, now frees up troops to fight the Bosnian government's main enemy, the Serbs.
Bosnian Serb leaders, meanwhile, began to fight back in their struggle with Belgrade following a searing attack by Yugoslav Federal President Zoran Lilic on Friday. Bosnian Serb Information Minister Miroslav Toholj said that Lilic's speech, in which he accused the Bosnian Serb leadership of pursuing the war for personal gain, committing war crimes, sacrificing lives and deceiving their people, contained "untruths and unseemly language."
Lilic, using some of the harshest language yet used against Bosnian Serbs by their former Yugoslav patrons, spoke in the name of Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, who has turned against Bosnain Serb leaders by imposing a blockade in an effort to force them to accept an international peace plan.
In response, Bosnian Serb leaders have gone on a publicity offensive, holding rallies to demonstrate support.
About 10,000 people turned out in the northern town of Banja Luka to cheer a speech by Radovan Karadzic which promised no surrender.
Milosevic himself met with the UN special envoy to Yugoslavia, Yasushi Akashi, Monday in a meeting which left the UN representative pessimistic.
"To be honest with you, I have not seen very clear positive signs which will lead us definitely to peace," Akashi said."I am deeply concerned with the prospect of the worsening of the situation," he said, adding he felt the situation in Bosnia was at a turning point and that Milosevic had reiterated his opposition to the deployment of international monitors.
Following the fall of Abdic's stronghold, panicked residents fled to neighboring Serb-held Croatia, which had backed Abdic's fight with Sarajevo. Abdic himself was also said to have escaped to the area, where Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic said he would be tried if captured.
The Sarajevo government offered amnesty to Abdic loyalists who surrendered by Wednesday. (AP, Reuters)
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