20 Killed in Bloodiest Battle of Yugoslav Crisis

Croatian security forces fought Serbian militiamen and the federal army Monday, leaving 20 dead in the bloodiest battle of the Yugoslav crisis. The federal presidency proposed an emergency agreement to prevent an escalation of the fighting.

The eight-member presidency said army troops stationed in the republic would return to barracks once Croatian and Serbian irregulars disarm and demobilize. In his statement on a meeting of the presidency, Macedonian President Kiro Gligorov indicated that the means for achieving a cease-fire were still being discussed.

Gligorov said the presidency and the heads of Yugoslavia’s six republics meeting in Ohrid, a Macedonian lake resort, also asked for European Community observers now monitoring the truce in Slovenia to be deployed to neighboring Croatia.

Croatian President Franjo Tudjman earlier stormed out of the meeting and returned to Zagreb, the Croatian capital.

In a late-night television address, he warned Croatians to expect the worst, saying the federal presidency has ignored his demand that it pull the army out of his republic and disarm Serbian militias.

“I am here to call on the Croatian people to stay calm but energetic, not to get provoked, and to be ready for a general war,” he said.

The escalating battles among Croatian and ethnic Serbian militias and the federal army on Monday forced the closure of the main railway link between western Europe and Turkey.

A cease-fire between the federal army and republic militia has held for nearly three weeks in neighboring Slovenia, which declared independence along with Croatia on June 25.

But ethnic battles have escalated in Croatia, where more than 100 people have been killed since May. The clashes pit Serbs and Croats, Yugoslavia’s two main ethnic groups. Increasingly, federal army troops also have been involved.

Eleven people were killed Sunday and at least 20 on Monday in a battle in and around the town of Vinkovci, 125 miles east of Zagreb in the Slavonia region of Croatia.

The Croatian Defense Ministry said that 14 Croatian national guardsmen, one policeman and five civilians were killed in fighting with Serbian militiamen and that 28 people--including 11 civilians--were injured.

A federal army statement released Monday night claimed that the battle started with an attack “by strong forces of the Croatian Interior Ministry and national guard” on the Serbian inhabitants of Mirkovci, just outside Vinkovci. It said the Croats fired at the village for nine hours with machine guns and mortars.