1 With diplomacy going nowhere, the United Nations focused Monday on feeding desperately hungry Bosnians: It reopened Sarajevo airport, and said it would try a new route to reach the northwest.
2 Officials of the U.N. aid agency, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, said food shortages were growing progressively worse in the Bihac pocket in northwestern Bosnia.
3 'The word starvation is now appropriate,' said spokesman Kris Janowski in Sarajevo. Monique Tuffelli, UNHCR representative in the Bihac region, said the most vulnerable -- children, the elderly, women -- 'are on the verge of starvation.'
4 Fighting in northwestern Bosnia and stubborn opposition by besieging forces have allowed only a trickle of the aid needed by tens of thousands of people.
5 One convoy reached the area late last week, but U.N. officials said they need daily deliveries. Aid workers said last week that poor nutrition appeared to be contributing to some deaths in the Bihac hospital.
6 Serbs from Croatia and anti-government Muslims, both allied with Bosnia's rebel Serbs, are fighting the Bosnian government in the region and blocking the aid shipments from the north and west.
7 On Monday, the United Nations announced that Bosnian Serbs and their government foes had agreed that the United Nations could try to reach the Bihac area from Bosnian Serb-held territory to the east. The UNHCR planned to try that route Tuesday.
8 U.N. officials reported moderate shelling in three areas of northwest Bosnia on Monday: near the town of Bihac, a U.N.-declared safe area; Velika Kladusa in the far north; and Bosanska Krupa in the east.
9 U.N. officials in recent days have reported movement of about 1,000 Serb soldiers in the area, possibly a sign of preparation for a new attack on Bihac.
10 After a two-day suspension, the United Nations reported its airlift of humanitarian aid to Sarajevo was up and running smoothly. Up to 19 flights were scheduled to bring in as much as 200 tons of aid.
11 With Serbs promising not to block roads, peacekeepers would try to bring it into the city on Tuesday, Janowski said.
12 Serbs had blocked the roads after an ethnic Serb working for UNHCR was detained by the Bosnian government on suspicion of spying. The airlift had been shut down because of a lack of storage at the airport.
13 Efforts by mediators to build on a four-month truce agreement are getting nowhere. The U.N. is having equal difficulty in getting opposing generals back to the bargaining table to strengthen the cease-fire.
14 The U.N. commander in Bosnia, Lt. Gen. Rupert Smith, failed Sunday to get the Bosnian government army chief, Gen. Rasim Delic, to return to talks. On Monday, the Bosnian Serb commander, Gen. Ratko Mladic, canceled a meeting with Smith.

Officials of the U . N . aid agency , the U . N . High Commissioner for Refugees , said food shortages were growing progressively worse in the Bihac pocket in northwestern Bosnia .
food shortages were growing progressively
Why is food shortages growing progressively worse?