42 Killed by Weekend Clashes in New Yugoslavian Hot Spot

The rebel Yugoslav republic of Croatia said that 42 people were killed over the weekend in a new conflict zone where Serbian guerrillas were reported to be gaining ground in fresh fighting Monday.

Belgrade radio said that Serbian militants had “liberated” the village of Vocin and taken control of most of Pakrac, a mostly Serb town in the ethnically mixed area of West Slavonia. Croatian police said their station there was under siege.

The Croatian Interior Ministry had no details of casualties in the new clashes but said 13 civilians, 23 guerrillas, four soldiers and two Croatian police officers were killed there over the weekend.

The fighting, the fiercest since a cease-fire was proclaimed in Croatia on Aug. 7, dampened hopes for the success of top-level talks on Yugoslavia’s future. Those talks are scheduled to begin today.

Croatian officials expressed pessimism about the planned two-day meeting of the federal presidency and the more powerful heads of Yugoslavia’s six republics, including adversaries Franjo Tudjman of Croatia and Serbia’s Slobodan Milosevic.

“I don’t know what can be negotiated as long as Serbia wants to create Greater Serbia,” an adviser to Tudjman said.

West Slavonia links up with the Serbian-held enclave of Krajina south of Zabreb, the Croatian capital. Croatia says that Serbia, which it accuses of directing the guerrillas and the federal army, wants these areas to form its new western borders in the event the Yugoslav federation ultimately collapses.

More than 250 people have been killed in clashes between Serbs and Croats, Yugoslavia’s biggest ethnic groups, since Croatia and Slovenia declared independence June 25.

Guerrilla leader Milan Martic, the Serbs’ chief military coordinator for the Krajina area they hold south of Zagreb, said in an interview that he planned major new offensives.

“We will soon take control of Petrinja, Karlovac and Zadar,” he told the Belgrade newspaper Borba, referring to towns on the edge of Krajina still held by Croatian forces.

“We and the (federal) army have common interests, and we need a large port,” he said, referring to the Adriatic Sea port of Zadar. Serbia has no opening to the coast.