EC’s Yugoslav Peace Effort Close to Collapsing

The European Community’s two-month effort to bring peace to Yugoslavia all but collapsed Tuesday as warring republics failed to agree on a formula for splitting up the country and hostilities raged between Serbia and Croatia.

Lord Carrington, the British diplomat who is chairman of the EC Yugoslav peace conference, said he will urge the community to adjourn the conference indefinitely on Friday if Serbia and Croatia do not abide by a new cease-fire. It would be the 11th under EC auspices.

“I am doubtful whether this latest attempt will succeed where others have failed,” Carrington conceded after meeting here with the presidents and foreign ministers of the six Yugoslav republics.

Even as the Yugoslav leaders were talking peace in The Hague, battles continued throughout Croatia, and the war was reported to have spilled into Serbia for the first time. The federal news agency Tanjug said four people were killed and a dozen injured when Croatian forces rocketed the town of Sid, just inside Serbia’s border with eastern Croatia.

With diplomats here laying most of the blame for the impasse on Serbia, Carrington said it is increasingly difficult to maintain the peace process “while the violence continues at current levels.”

EC foreign ministers, meeting in Rome on Friday, will decide whether to adjourn the peace conference--”which in layman’s terms means forget it,” as one European diplomat put it. The ministers will also decide whether to adopt trade sanctions against Serbia.

Havemann reported from The Hague and Williams from Zagreb.