Clashes Mar Latest Truce in Yugoslavia

Croatian forces and the Yugoslav army clashed Saturday at one of Croatia’s main battlefronts, disrupting a new cease-fire drawn up to allow deployment of U.N. peacekeeping forces.

Croatia’s Zagreb Radio said a Croatian National Guard member died in fighting at the village of Sirinci in the western Slavonia region following an army infantry attack at midmorning.

The Belgrade-based Tanjug news agency quoted the federal army as saying clashes took place after Croatian fighters attacked positions held by the army and Serb irregulars late Friday.

The clashes shook the new U.N.-brokered cease-fire which took effect at 6 p.m. Friday.

In another incident, Zagreb Radio said the army and Serb irregulars launched a late-morning mortar attack on Zemunik Donji, north of the coastal town of Zadar.

Earlier, Croatian and army sources had said the cease-fire appeared to be holding well on most battlefronts in spite of isolated violations, and that fighting had subsided sharply.

Commanders of Croatian forces and the Serb-led federal army agreed on the latest truce as part of a U.N. plan under which peacekeeping forces would be sent to Croatia.

U.N. special envoy Cyrus R. Vance says he will not allow deployment of a 10,000-strong “Blue Helmet” intervention force in Croatia unless the truce really holds.

Fourteen previous cease-fires in the six-month conflict have collapsed in bloodshed--many of them after an initial lull in fighting lasting several days.

Unlike previous truces, the new cease-fire provides for the setting up of liaison mechanisms near the battlefront to settle violations peacefully. Some analysts say these may not be yet in place.

The fighting was triggered by independence declarations from Croatia and Slovenia last June.

Britain’s Lord Carrington, chairing a European Community-sponsored peace conference on Yugoslavia, is to reconvene the next meeting in Brussels on Thursday.