Yugoslavs’ Truce in Peril; Germany Warns Serbians

Heavy new fighting in Croatia on Wednesday that mocked a cease-fire--three days old and universally ignored--brought a warning from Germany that it is close to recognizing the breakaway Yugoslav republics of Croatia and Slovenia as independent countries.

Serbian irregulars, supported by Yugoslav army units, captured land and villages in eastern and southern Croatia in a series of attacks, effectively severing the eastern arm of the republic from its capital, Zagreb.

Observers saw the attacks as a Serbian attempt to stake out territory and control key communication and transport links in advance of a scheduled weekend peace conference, planned at the behest of the European Community.

Germany reacted sharply to the third consecutive day of violence after a cease-fire agreement that neither side has shown any will to observe. European observers, authorized by the peace accord signed Monday, arrived in Croatia on Wednesday. But European officials said they will not be deployed until the ethnic violence ends.

Speaking to Parliament in Bonn, Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher said German sympathy for Slovenia and Croatia could translate into quick diplomatic recognition of their independence if fighting does not end quickly. Germany, and the rest of the European Community, considers Serbia, the largest of the six Yugoslav republics, as the aggressor in Croatia and accuses the federal Yugoslav army of supporting attacks by Serbian irregulars.

Genscher spoke bluntly to Serbia: “The hour of this recognition nears with every shot your cannon and tanks fire. We will not be able to stand by and watch any longer.”

The foreign minister’s remarks came in a parliamentary debate on foreign policy in which Chancellor Helmut Kohl also renewed Bonn’s threat to recognize the two breakaway republics, but without the urgent tones in which his foreign minister spoke.

Hard-line Serbia, which insists that a Serbian minority in Croatia cannot be forced to live in any state outside Serbian control, agreed to the peace conference “with gritted teeth,” as one observer here put it. The conference is scheduled to open Saturday in The Hague after a preliminary meeting Friday of foreign ministers of the 12 West European countries who have laid the European Community’s prestige on the line in a long-shot search for peace.

One senior European diplomat in Belgrade described Wednesday’s attacks, in which Serbian irregulars were supported by the army, as “deeply worrying” and said the army and rebel offensive suggested an attempt not only to grab more territory but to “bring the Croatian leadership to its knees.”

The eastern region is Croatia’s breadbasket, the diplomat noted, and Serbian control of it would restrict shipment of crops and produce reaching Zagreb. Wednesday’s attacks also knocked out two television and radio towers, slicing communications in the region, the Serbian irregulars claimed.

Fighting also blocked the main expressway between Belgrade, the federal and Serbian capital, and Zagreb. Rail traffic to Zagreb from the south is also out, the airport is closed and earlier Serbian advances have restricted access between Zagreb and Croatian regions on Yugoslavia’s Adriatic coast.

In Wednesday’s fighting, Croatian soldiers killed three Yugoslav army soldiers and a civilian at a roadblock near Zagreb airport, the Yugoslav army said.

Elsewhere, the battle news Wednesday was all bad for Croatia. Serbian rebel leaders claimed to have captured the last Croatian town in northeastern Croatia and told Belgrade television that they planned a major offensive against the regional center of Osijek.