Bosnia’s Serbs Declare Their Own Republic
Serbs in ethnically mixed Bosnia-Herzegovina proclaimed their own republic on Saturday, threatening to exacerbate tensions in the crumbling Yugoslav federation.
A day earlier, Bosnia became the fourth of six republics to declare that it will pursue independence. Analysts fear that war could spread to that area. In Croatia, Croats and a Serb minority backed by the army are locked in civil war.
In response to Bosnia’s declaration and that of Macedonia on Thursday, the U.S. State Department on Saturday warned Serbia not to use the issue of independence to threaten either republic.
The Serbian-dominated remnant of the federal Parliament, however, on Saturday denounced a European Community decision to recognize Croatia and other independence-minded Yugoslav republics, saying the decision “fans continued armed clashes.”
In other developments:
* The Belgrade-based Tanjug news agency reported a cease-fire, applying to all of Croatia’s western Slavonia region north of Bosnia, had been agreed on, effective at 8 a.m. local time today.
* Croatian battlefronts were mostly calm, although one person was reported killed at Slovenska Pozega and two people were killed at Vsar during air attacks on Adriatic towns.
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