Yugoslav Dispute at New Impasse
Croatia warned Thursday that escalation of its dispute with the federal army had raised anew the specter of civil war. A delegation walked out of a meeting with regional leaders trying to smooth differences over Yugoslavia’s future.
Franjo Tudjman, president of non-communist Croatia, said upon returning to the republic’s capital of Zagreb that his delegation left “because there were no conditions for conducting dialogue.”
The meeting, convened by a federal presidency made up of six republic and two provincial leaders, was the second aimed at resolving differences between regional leaders over the future of the federation of 24 million residents.
Bilateral talks since the first session on Jan. 10 have failed to defuse deep divisions along ethnic, political and economic lines.
The confrontation pits secessionist-minded Croatia and Slovenia against the communist-ruled state of Serbia and the federal army, whose pro-communist officers increasingly are meddling in Yugoslav politics.
Croatia’s federal presidency member, Stipe Mesic, said he hoped the negotiations could be continued but “on some other basis and without the army.”
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