Relief Team Finally Reaches Battered Town in Croatia
A convoy carrying food and medical supplies braved gunfire and fighting Sunday to reach the beleaguered Croatian town of Vukovar.
The 50-vehicle column of trucks, ambulances and buses had been turned back under fire Friday and Saturday. It was led by European Community monitors who arrived after “a terrible odyssey” through a no-man’s-land.
Relief workers said at least 5,000 children and elderly were trapped in Vukovar, which was under constant attack for more than seven weeks. Besides bringing supplies, the convoy will begin to evacuate about 300 wounded today.
The relief of Vukovar was expected to lead to the withdrawal of the remaining federal army troops from the Borongaj barracks in Zagreb, the capital of Croatia.
The two moves were central points of the latest cease-fire negotiated by the EC to halt the fighting that has killed more than 1,000 people since Croatia declared independence June 25.
A first group of about 70 vehicles was allowed to leave the Borongaj barracks Saturday and crossed into the neighboring republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina on Sunday. The rest of the garrison remained in the barracks, trapped for almost a month by Croatian forces.
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