Yugoslav Suicides Tied to Youth Group

A series of suicides by young people in this northwest Yugoslav town, linked with a mysterious “Black Rose” movement, has alarmed parents and prompted a police inquiry, the daily newspaper Vjesnik said Sunday.

Zagreb police have been inundated with dozens of reported suicides since the first incident two months ago--a 15-year-old girl who shot herself in the head in her room, surrounded by dozens of burning candles.

At least 20 suicides have been recorded officially.

Vjesnik said authorities began to look for an explanation in an unofficial youth movement known as “The Dark Ones” and its radical offshoot “Black Rose.”

The newspaper said the movement has a program praising a “relativist” attitude to life and suicide.

Attempts to trace the movement’s leaders failed, although its adherents were often seen in Zagreb clubs and cafes wearing black, staring at walls and refusing to talk to outsiders.

Vjesnik said parents in the Croatian capital had begun to keep their children indoors and forbid them to listen to British rock groups whose music reportedly inspires the movement’s ideas.

The newspaper suggested, however, that the deaths probably had more to do with Yugoslavia’s deep economic and social crisis.