Bosnian Muslims Block Evacuation of Own Refugees : Balkans: Action in besieged town is designed to hold off Serbs’ final conquest in the area.

SPLIT, Croatia —  In a desperate move to forestall final conquest of eastern Bosnia-Herzegovina, Muslim authorities refused Sunday to allow evacuation of frightened women and children from the Serbian-besieged town of Srebrenica.

Representatives of the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said local military leaders fear that Srebrenica would be attacked and quickly vanquished if too many of the 60,000 terrified refugees trapped in the town were allowed to flee.

This latest “blockade” of Srebrenica came amid increasing signs that a week-old cease-fire in Bosnia was unraveling. Croatian and Bosnian media reported at least 23 deaths from artillery and small-arms fire in the previous 24 hours.

The United Nations resumed a vital airlift of supplies into the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo on Sunday after a 16-day suspension, but the Srebrenica commanders’ action appeared to open a disturbing new front in the frustration of relief work.

Bosnia’s Muslim-led government had earlier consented to the evacuations on humanitarian grounds, despite their concerns that U.N. assistance in the rescue effort would help the Serbian forces in their quest to create an “ethnically pure” state in the land they have seized.

But Srebrenica’s defenders defied orders from Sarajevo and refused to let eight U.N. trucks that made their way to the town with food and medicine take out any of the thousands of women, children, elderly and sick residents who are desperate to escape before Serbian forces move in for a final offensive.

The hungry and often homeless civilians contribute little to the defense of Srebrenica, but local authorities apparently believe that their continued presence might deter the Serbs from outright annihilation of the community or compel Western countries to prevent a large-scale blood bath.

Srebrenica is one of only three enclaves in eastern Bosnia where Muslims are still holding out against the heavily armed Serbs.

The town, swollen to nearly double its prewar population by Muslims expelled from other areas, has become a symbol of resistance during the past few weeks as U.N. forces and relief workers have struggled to call world attention to the civilians’ plight.

Serbian rebels have blocked most aid deliveries to the region in a bid to starve the last holdouts.

Having given up hope that the town can be defended against the encroaching Serbs, thousands of Srebrenica residents are desperate to escape. At least nine women and children were crushed to death in chaotic evacuations last week when panicked crowds stampeded aboard a handful of trucks brought in by the U.N. refugee agency.

After their own leaders blocked their departure Sunday, angry demonstrators protested in the town center, the Belgrade-based Tanjug news agency reported.

In another sign of the progressive disintegration of central authority in Bosnia, Croatian military leaders demanded exclusive control over most areas of the republic not already conquered and occupied by Serbs.

The military command in the Croatian stronghold of Mostar issued a virtual ultimatum to Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic to withdraw all government troops from those areas of the republic destined for Croatian rule under a U.N.-sponsored peace plan.

“If Izetbegovic fails to sign this agreement by April 15, the HVO (Bosnian Croats) will unilaterally enforce its jurisdiction” in those provinces with a Croatian majority, warned the military command’s statement read over state-run radio and television here.

Both Croatian and Muslim authorities have accepted the proposal of U.N. mediator Cyrus R. Vance and the European Community’s Lord Owen to carve up Bosnia into 10 ethnic provinces. The Serbs, who have already conquered 70% of Bosnia and expelled most non-Serbs, formally rejected the Vance-Owen plan at a weekend meeting in the town of Bileca.

The Vance-Owen plan was not intended to encourage ethnic partitioning of the republic. But because Western governments have done nothing to deter Serbian rebels in their open drive for an ethnically pure state, Bosnian Croats have been increasingly doing likewise. They have fought with Bosnian government troops throughout the central region where Croats and Muslims have lived in mixed communities for centuries.

Well over 100,000 people are dead or missing in Bosnia--most of them Muslim civilians--in the year since the republic’s Serbian minority rose up in arms against a popular vote for independence from Yugoslavia. Bosnia’s Serbs want to reunite the territory they have seized with the Serbian-dominated federation and with Serbian-occupied areas of Croatia.