EC's Lord Owen Expects Bosnian Peace Talks Soon

MEDIATOR Lord Owen said yesterday he expected the three factions involved in the Bosnian fighting to restart negotiations soon, but not before the end of this week.

Lord Owen, speaking from Zagreb, said he feared horrific consequences if a deal was not reached by the onset of winter. "It's been a real hellish situation, and it's getting worse. I just cannot believe that we can allow the fighting to go on into the winter," he said.

Bosnia's collective presidency met yesterday in Zagreb to consider a Serb-Croat plan for a three-way partition of the country. Seven Bosnian presidency members agreed Friday to reject the plan for a confederation of Serb, Croat, and Muslim mini-states, in favor of a federal but single Bosnian state.

"There is a growing mood of realism," Owen said. "We are going to see gradual movement over the next three or four days. I would not expect them to meet before the end of this week at the earliest."

Meanwhile, UN officials in Sarajevo said they were suspending aid convoys to central Bosnia for at least 72 hours, because of a buildup of troops and armor. Sarajevo is near to collapse, without electricity, gas, or running water; Croatian radio reported that water supplies had dried up completely because pumps serving underground wells had stopped working for lack of fuel. Germans Protest Killings

About 2,000 leftists demonstrated in the central German town of Wiesbaden Saturday against the still-unexplained police killing two weeks ago of suspected urban guerrilla Wolfgang Grams.

Controversy over the death of Grams has continued amid reports that inquiries into the close-range shooting are being held up by incompetence or obstruction in police ranks. Witnesses say police had captured Grams at a railway platform in the northern town of Bad Kleinen, immobilized him, and shot him in the head.

His Red Army Faction (RAF) guerrilla group, which has waged a war of kidnapping and assassination against the state for two decades, hinted in a letter Friday it may end a 15-month-old moratorium on attacks on individuals; Grams's death had created a new situation, it said.

In an attempt to prevent RAF from resuming its terror campaign, Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel called for renewal of a bid he made last year for reconciliation, according to German radio.

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