ROBERTS EXPECTS NEW U.N. MANDATE TO BEGIN AS OF APRIL 1

ZADAR, March 30 (Hina) - UN Sector South spokesman Alun Roberts today said at a press confererence in Zadar that he expected a new UN-mandate to take effect on April 1. "Everything leads to such a conclusion", Roberts said. He added that the 29 March 1994 ceasefire was "at the edge of failure", specifying that the number of violations increased from average 35 to 66 a week. The Serb side was responsible for the two thirds of the violations, he emphasized. The most difficult was the situation in the south-eastern part of the Sector South, where Croatian army or Bosnian Croat (HVO) forces had entered about five kilometers inside the UN Protected Area. In return, the Serbs took back some of their heavy weapons from storage sites, and tranferred them to the southern part of Vranovaca and to the Lakar area, near Lake Peruca. Serb forces threatened to use the weapons if the Croatian army or the HVO continued to advance, Roberts said. Roberts said that 40 shells had fallen on the village of Bravcev Dolac on March 26. The shells were fired from the Bosnian side of the border and Serb forces fired back 20 mortar shells. The Serbs seized the weapons from warehouses at Civljani and Mala Polaca, where UNPROFOR had been denied access. (Hina) mm bk 302107 MET mar 95