Serb houses torched in Bosnia

United Nations officials in Bosnia-Hercegovina have gone to the western town of Drvar to investigate a wave of arson attacks on houses belonging to its former Serb inhabitants.

A UN spokesman, Alexander Ivanko, said several houses had been torched in the past two weeks in what could be seen as an organised campaign to prevent the return of Serbs to their pre-war homes.

Drvar, now under Bosnian-Croat control, was predominantly Serb until the closing weeks of the Bosnian war in 1995.

Many are planning to return following the victory of a Bosnian Serb party in local elections last year.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service