REU a1106 ri reulb BOSNIA-SHOOTING 09-15 10:10a BC-BOSNIA-SHOOTING

Swedish journalist shot in Bosnia

SARAJEVO, Sept 15 (Reuter) - A Swedish journalist was shot and wounded when armed men opened fire on his vehicle in Serb-controlled territory outside Sarajevo, the NATO-led peace force said on Monday.

Stefan Borg, a reporter for the private Swedish station TV-4, was shot in the left arm after he and a colleague refused an order to stop from a group of five men armed with pistols and rifles, Stabilisation Force (SFOR) spokesman Major John Blackeley told reporters.

The shooting occurred on Sunday evening as the journalists covering Bosnia's municipal elections were approaching a tunnel on the Serb side of the boundary line that separates Bosnia's Serb and Moslem-Croat territories.

"Borg decided to step on it, tried to sort of run through these guys. Then they opened fire on them," Eva Elmsater, a reporter for the Swedish TV-1, told Reuters.

"They were very, very lucky," Elmsater said. "The back window was broken, and one bullet went into the back of the car seat."

The two journalists, who were reporting on the closing of polling stations in the headquarters of the Serb hardline leadership, managed to drive another 150 metres (yards) to Italian troops parked by the road.

The wounded journalist was taken to a German military hospital in the Sarajevo suburb of Rajlovac in the Moslem-Croat federation territory where his condition was reported to be stable. The bullet grazed his ribs and was still lodged in his arm.

It was believed to be the first shooting incident involving foreign journalists since the war ended in November 1995. REUTER

Reut10:14 09-15-97 d - 8Ca0993LBY818reulb r i BC-MIDEAST-SYRIA-IRAN 09-09 0319 [Bosnia

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