1 In sign of hope for civilians trapped by war, scores of sick and wounded Muslims arrived in the Bosnian capital early today after being evacuated from a besieged eastern town.
2 But Serbs dashed expectations that Sarajevans would be permitted to travel outside the narrow, mountain-enclosed confines of the shattered city that has been their entire world for the past three years.
3 A route out of Sarajevo was expected to open later today -- but only for international humanitarian agencies that already can use another route. The Serbs refused to open the route to civilians and Bosnian charities.
4 U.N. officials said the Serbs' last-minute restrictions on who could use the road, which runs through the city's airport, would translate into little improvement for the capital's residents.
5 A Serb demand for half the cargo being transported along the new route put a further dent in the access agreement.
6 The convoy of 13 armored U.N. ambulances arrived from the eastern city of Gorazde around 1:30 a.m. after a 10{-hour, 50-mile ride interrupted constantly for Serb inspections.
7 It was met by a knot of relatives, crying with joy, who mobbed the ambulances as patients were carried on stretchers to the shrapnel-scarred surgery ward.
8 The evacuees said life in Gorazde, where 50,000 people have been trapped in a ghetto by the Serbs since the start of the war, had gotten a little better since a cease-fire took effect Dec. 31.
9 The United Nations feeds and provides medical care to people living in the enclave, which is otherwise entirely cut off from the outside world.
10 'The U.N. was very good to us: They gave us food and took good care of us,' said Mujo Becirevic, who is suffering from a shell wound to the leg.
11 Another convoy with 30 or so patients was to arrive today.
12 A four-month cease-fire agreement signed Dec. 31 made possible the medical evacuation and opening of the route into Sarajevo today. But U.N. and Bosnian army officials despaired of expanding the truce into a more lasting peace.
13 They expect that milder weather, combined with forces that have regrouped and rested during the winter respite in fighting, will lead to a renewed, full-blown war in Bosnia come spring.
14 There was more fighting in northwest Bosnia on Tuesday, U.N. officials and Bosnian radio reported. The so-called Bihac pocket is the scene of chronic combat that threatens to unravel the republic-wide cease-fire.
15 In Washington, Bosnian Prime Minister Haris Silajdzic urged the United States to set a May 1 deadline for Serbs to accept a peace plan or face new air strikes and sanctions.
16 In testimony before a congressional panel, Silajdzic accused Western nations of aiding the militarily stronger Serbs by refusing to lift the U.N. arms embargo against Bosnia's Muslim-led government.
17 Bosnia's war began in April 1992, when Serbs rebelled against the republic's decision to secede from Serb-dominated Yugoslavia. More than 200,000 people have been killed in the fighting.

In sign of hope for civilians trapped by war , scores of sick and wounded Muslims arrived in the Bosnian capital early today after being evacuated from a besieged eastern town .
evacuated from a besieged eastern town .
Why were the sick and wounded being evacuated from this town?