Besieged Croats Cheer Flotilla Bringing Aid Through Blockade

A flotilla carrying humanitarian aid and senior Croatian officials pierced a naval blockade of Dubrovnik on Thursday, drawing cheers from thousands cut off from the rest of Croatia by a monthlong siege.

The breakthrough was mostly symbolic, since the 30-odd vessels were subjected to federal navy searches that delayed their arrival by a full day.

Yugoslav army troops still control the hills overlooking the walled city, and federal warships have kept in place their floating cordon, preventing supplies from reaching Croatia’s most treasured resort by land, air or sea.

But the arrival of the fishing and tour boats, with their holds full of fruit, milk and medicine, was a moral victory for the 50,000 men, women and children who have taken refuge inside the famed Adriatic fortress, refusing to surrender to the Serbian-commanded military onslaught.

Also aboard the relief flotilla were about 900 refugees from Dubrovnik who have decided to return and defend their homes.

“We had to come here to show that we are all one body, one Croatia,” Stipe Mesic, the Croatian head of the paralyzed Yugoslav collective presidency, told 2,000 cheering well-wishers from the deck of the ferry Slavija.

“The spirit of the people cannot be stopped,” declared Mesic. “Long live Dubrovnik!”

Croatian television showed the crew-cut federal president plying Dubrovnik’s walkways in jeans and a heavy duffel coat, shaking hands with the weary holdouts.