Sarajevo

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia -- The Bosnian Serbs earned a second 72-hour reprieve from NATO bombing yesterday by pulling back heavy weapons around Sarajevo, but a continuing Bosnian army and Croat offensive in northwest Bosnia raised fears that recent tentative moves toward peace could unravel.United Nations and NATO commanders, who had stopped the bombing of Bosnian Serb positions on the condition that the Serbs withdraw most of their big guns on the heights around Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital, said that the Serbs had made "substantial progress" and that the bombing pause would be extended for another 72 hours.

PARIS -- The Bosnian Serbs have agreed to withdraw their heavy guns out of firing range of Sarajevo, ending at least temporarily NATO's two-week bombing campaign against the Serbs, allied officials announced yesterday.The agreement, signed by the Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and military commander Gen. Ratko Mladic, gives the Serbs six days to withdraw the approximately 300 guns that have consistently bombarded Sarajevo since April 6, 1992, the officials said.In return, NATO will suspend its bombing for three days, with a promise to refrain for a further three days if convinced the Serbian guns are being moved.

Since no one can surmount the problems facing American cities, presumably, we are invited as consolation to vote our prejudice in the city Democratic primary.The driving force for this comes from Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke, who enjoys the best-funded campaign, devoted almost entirely to black consciousness and black male pride.Nothing in his years in office as a serious and fair (if distant) servant of all people prepared us for this. It must come from somewhere else.Mr. Schmoke's campaign mentor, Larry Gibson, has never let him down.

DURING A visit to Paris a few weeks ago, I was fascinated to watch how the French dealt with two major news events that happened to coincide on a balmy summer weekend. The 82nd Tour de France bicycle race was concluded on the Champs-Elysees and two French peacekeeping soldiers in Bosnia were killed in Sarajevo. The French news coverage of the two events wasn't even close. The Tour de France won by a mile.When an Italian cyclist, Fabio Casartelli, was killed in a crash during the Tour de France earlier in the week, his picture was plastered on the front page of every Paris newspaper and he was mourned from Calais to Cannes.

We have two combat veterans living with us. They are 12- and 14-year-old sisters, Nadja and Djana Kazic. They like stuffed animals, TV and Keanu Reeves. While in most ways they seem like normal teen-agers, they have clearly been traumatized by three years under fire in Sarajevo.Last summer we read the following letter, one of many published by the Soros Foundation's ''Pen Pals for Peace'' program:Dear Unknown American Friend,My name is Nadja. I am 11 years old; I have a 12-year-old sister.

VITEZ, Bosnia-Herzegovina -- As United Nations forces dug in their artillery for a well-publicized show of force near Sarajevo yesterday, Serbian forces took their business elsewhere, attacking the distant Muslim enclave of Bihac with renewed vigor and no U.N. response.That development, plus further delays and uncertainty with the United Nation's Sarajevo operation, illustrated once again the surreal atmosphere enveloping the peacekeeping mission in Bosnia.Even after recent reinforcements and a fresh round of warnings to the Serbs, U.N. troops seem unable to cope with circumstances in which well-armed units can be halted by a local sentry or a farmer with a pitchfork, and in which the world body's various orders and ultimatums sometimes seem at cross purposes.

VITEZ, Bosnia-Herzegovina -- The United Nations put its battered capability and resolve on the line once again in Bosnia yesterday, ordering tanks, artillery and more than 800 French and British soldiers of its rapid-reaction force toward the besieged capital city of Sarajevo.The goal of the mission was to dig in on Mount Igman, along the only open supply route into the city, and from there fire at any Serbian tank or gun that targets U.N. forces and aid convoys.The action came just hours after Bosnian Serb shelling killed two French U.N. peacekeepers and wounded four others.

Save SarajevoThe lives of Sarajevo's brave and beleaguered people are almost too tragic for us to bear.It is hard to believe that a few years ago the city hosted the Winter Olympics and presented itself to the world as a cosmopolitan city with a centuries-old cultural heritage, where Christians and Muslims, Serbs and Bosnians lived and worked together.The siege has continued despite diplomatic efforts to end it. We have allowed this horror to continue for too long. It is past time. We must do what is necessary to free Sarajevo.

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina -- Nine people, including four children who had ventured outdoors to play, were killed yesterday in mortar and sniper attacks on a city desperate to free itself from 38 months of Bosnian Serb siege.Six people were killed when a shell slammed into a downtown neighborhood near the central market, which had been crowded earlier in the day with shoppers enjoying a respite from fighting and rainstorms.Among the dead there were three children, including two little girls in summer dresses.

Bosnian government troops have converged north of Sarajevo, triggering fears of a major battle between the government and rebel Bosnian Serbs for control of the Bosnian capital and the surrounding hills.Leaders of Bosnia's Muslim-led government say they are ready to try to force an end to the 3-year-old siege of the city, which is encircled by Serbian forces equipped with heavy artillery despite efforts by U.N. peacekeepers to confiscate heavy weapons from both sides.Article, 3A