BIHAC RESIDENTS FACE STARVATION

ZAGREB, Feb 14 (Hina) - The majority of people in the Bihac pocket of northwestern Bosnia were suffering from malnutrition while starvation was reported in some risk groups, a spokeswoman in Zagreb for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said today. The situation could become critical unless the problem of food delivery was solved soon, Alemka Lisinski told a press conference. Lisinski said that elderly people, women and children were particularly vulnerable. A ten-truck convoy, which should have departed from Zagreb for Cazin on Monday, was not granted clearance by Bosnian Serb authorities, Lisinski said. Rebel Croatian Serbs in Knin agreed to allow free passage for a UN 20-truck convoy with food and medicine which would travel via Velika Kladusa to Bihac tomorrow. Serb authorities in Knin also granted clearance for another three convoys to the Bihac enclave. One was scheduled to bring food to Velika Kladusa on Thursday while the other two would travel to Bihac on Friday and Saturday. (Hina) mar rv 141900 MET feb 95