Croatia’s Parliament Approves Bill on Serbian Minority Rights

Hopeful of international recognition, Croatia adopted key legislation Wednesday on Serbian minority rights. But fighting continued, and a U.N. envoy said obstacles remained to sending peacekeepers to the war-torn region.

Meanwhile, Germany, a staunch supporter of breakaway Croatia and critic of the Serbian-dominated federal government, announced that it is halting all air transport and shipping links with Serbia and its ally, Montenegro.

The adoption by Croatia’s Parliament of legislation anchoring the rights of the republic’s 600,000 minority Serbs was aimed at easing Serbians’ fear of persecution and winning international recognition by proving its commitment to democracy as an independent nation.

The law, passed unanimously, foresees broad cultural autonomy for ethnic minorities, with local police, courts and government to be controlled by Serbs in areas of the republic where they form a majority.

But Parliament President Zarko Domljan said it would be implemented only after the war is over and free, multi-party elections are held in Serb-populated areas.

Serbia and ethnic Serbs in Croatia have said they fear the minority will be persecuted in an independent Croatia. Tens of thousands of Serbs were killed by the wartime fascist regime in Croatia. Retaliatory killings took place afterward.

Meanwhile, U.N. special envoy Cyrus R. Vance met with Croatian President Franjo Tudjman in Zagreb after meeting earlier in the day in Belgrade with federal Defense Minister Veljko Kadijevic.

But “clearly obstacles remain” to the deployment of U.N. peacekeepers to separate Croatian forces battling the Serb-dominated army and Serbian irregulars, he said.

Fighting continued Wednesday around battered Osijek and elsewhere in Croatia.