Croatian Vows Mobilization to Fight Serbs

Militarily battered and politically bruised, Croatian President Franjo Tudjman conceded Monday that his defense forces are no match for the Yugoslav army but vowed to mobilize the entire population to fight with “bare hands” if necessary to protect independence.

The former general, who has spearheaded this republic’s break from the Yugoslav federation, seemed to be torn between candor and bravado as he discussed the terrifying future awaiting Croatia.

Serbian militants--often with the backing of Yugoslav army tanks and aircraft--have seized vast stretches of Croatian territory in recent days, and the outgunned Croatian forces have been powerless to halt their advance.

“We shall not hesitate, if necessary, to call up in arms our entire population--to call on them to resist aggression and occupation with their bare hands,” Tudjman told reporters.

At the same time, he acknowledged that his government has too few weapons even for those national guardsmen already mobilized for the defense of Croatia and that the republic’s total lack of tanks and aircraft renders its forces inferior to the federal army.

Radical Croatian nationalists have stepped up the pressure on Tudjman for an all-out war with the rival Serbian republic to avenge the mounting deaths of Croats. However, many Croats have been traumatized by the escalating violence and now question the president’s ability to extract Croatia from an impending blood bath.

Shifting political support forced Tudjman to reshuffle his Cabinet over the weekend.

Retreat from the battle against Serbian incursions is unthinkable, Tudjman made clear, while saying an open declaration of war would be tantamount to suicide.

“Would it be responsible for me as president to declare war of unarmed people against the (Yugoslav) armed forces?” Tudjman asked at a news conference. “Instead of 150 dead, we would have 150,000.”

About 300 people have been killed in Croatia and Slovenia since the two republics declared themselves independent of Yugoslavia on June 25.

Fears of worsening bloodshed have intensified after the failure of the latest Western peace mission and the worst spate of violence in the country since World War II. More than half the casualties, suffered primarily by Croats, have occurred within the last week.

European Community diplomats threw up their hands in despair Sunday, saying they were being stonewalled by Serbia in efforts to mediate the bitter conflict rooted in ancient hatred, religious intolerance and deep distrust.

But Tudjman, who in the past has boasted of his republic’s military readiness, appeared to be taking a new tack Monday when he cast the weakness of his forces as an argument in favor of broader involvement by European powers.

“In Belgrade, there was failure, but it was a success for Croatia,” Tudjman said of the weekend EC effort to forge a compromise. “Now, the representatives of the European Community have seen the essence of the problem.”

Serbia’s Communist strongman, President Slobodan Milosevic, refused even to attend Sunday’s talks, reportedly to underscore his opposition to suggestions that Western Europe deploy an armed peacekeeping force to deter further violence.

Croatia wants the conflict “internationalized” in hopes of gaining foreign protection from the Serbian-dominated army while efforts at negotiating terms of Croatia’s secession continue.

EC foreign ministers have summoned an emergency meeting at The Hague for today, but little immediate progress on the Yugoslav crisis can be expected as long as Serbia opposes foreign involvement.

The largest of Yugoslavia’s six republics, Serbia is suspicious of any Western intervention in what it sees as a domestic crisis. Its Communist leadership has also shown itself to be indifferent to threats of political or economic sanctions.

While the battle over Croatia intensifies, Slovenia, the most developed republic, has effectively been granted independence, having reached agreement with Belgrade for a withdrawal of federal troops.

But Serbia refuses to accept an independent Croatia. Armed militants have moved in to take over ethnic Serbian-populated regions of the republic in what appears to be preparation for establishing a greatly expanded Serbia once the 73-year-old Yugoslav federation is officially declared dead.

Fighting between Serbs and Croats continued across a broad section of Croatia, with at least five reported dead Monday from clashes in the tense region between the Adriatic port of Split and the city of Knin, which is the ethnic Serbs’ stronghold within Croatia.

Serbian political leaders have been reclusive throughout the crisis. They have used the state-controlled media to accuse Tudjman and his nationalist Croatian Democratic Union of plotting genocide against the 600,000 Serbs living in the republic of 5 million.

Hundreds of thousands of Serbs, Jews and Gypsies were executed during World War II under the last independent Croatian state, the fanatic Ustasha regime installed by German and Italian fascists. Those killings triggered retaliatory massacres of Croats toward the end of the war.

Ethnic hostilities simmered in communism’s sealed caldron for nearly half a century before free elections throughout Yugoslavia last year endorsed staunchly nationalist leaders in both Serbia and Croatia, pushing the federation’s nearly 10 million Serbs and 5 million Croats into civil war.

NEXT STEP

European Community foreign ministers are holding an emergency meeting today at The Hague to discuss the Yugoslav crisis and to devise possible EC initiatives. In addition, French Foreign Affairs Minister Roland Dumas called for an emergency meeting of the Western European Union to consider sending a military force to Yugoslavia that would separate the warring factions but not become involved in the fighting. The WEU, founded in 1954, is concerned with defense cooperation. There are also plans to bring the issue before the U.N. Security Council in the next few days.