U.N. Chief Dispatching Vance on Mission for Peace in Bosnia

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina —  U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali said Saturday that he will send his special envoy, Cyrus R. Vance, to Bosnia-Herzegovina to find a way to end weeks of ethnic bloodshed.

A truce reached Friday failed to take hold, and fighting raged Saturday between Serb and Slavic Muslims near the Drina River, where a militant Muslim threatened to blow up a dam. Fighting also was reported elsewhere in the region.

The European Community appealed for peace in the newly independent republic.

Boutros-Ghali, speaking in Geneva, said he would dispatch Vance to Bosnia but gave no date.

“The United Nations will make all necessary efforts to maintain peace and security in the region,” Boutros-Ghali said.

More than 150 people have died in Bosnia since clashes began last month, and thousands have been driven from their homes.

Serbs, who make up a third of Bosnia’s 4.3 million people, want to stay in Yugoslavia, but the dominant Muslims and Croats voted for independence in a referendum Feb. 29.

The violence has escalated since last week, when the European Community and the United States recognized Bosnia’s independence. Serb militias have attacked Bosnian towns, apparently intent on carving a swath of Serb-held territories similar to those they seized in Croatia.

Croatian militias also have been fighting for territory in case the republic disintegrates.

There are fears that an all-out war in Bosnia would be much bloodier than in neighboring Croatia, where 14,000 peacekeepers are arriving to maintain a shaky truce reached in January. Up to 10,000 people died in nine months of fighting before Serbs and Croats agreed to lay down their arms.