SERBS CONTINUE TO LOOT, BURN HOUSES IN SARAJEVO SUBURBS

SARAJEVO, March 11 (Hina) - Ninety Bosnian Federation police officers would take over the Sarajevo suburb of Ilidja on Tuesday morning, UN spokesman in Sarajevo Aleksandar Ivanko said on Monday. The federal policemen would be interviewed by the international police task force who would assess whether they met professional requirements to do their job. Ivanko warned that the situation in Ilidja was tense and that about 20 fires had been registered there since last night, all of them believed to be cases of arson. IFOR troops were instructed to arrest persons attempting to commit arson and hand them over to the Serb police, who in turn set them free. A tear-gas container exploded in Ilidza around 22.00 hours Sunday, near a building where international police troops were accommodated, Ivanko said. Armed gangs of Serb looters continued to intimidate their ethnic kin who did not want to leave their homes in Ilidja and Grbavica, but Serb police refused to intervene. An IFOR source in Sarajevo said that international police patrols in the area had been reinforced, with each patrol now consisting of 120 officers. IFOR troops continued efforts to save people from burning buildings, but could do little to prevent the looting and arson, the source said. (hina) lm jn 111614 MET mar 96