Bosnian Lawmakers Override Serbs, Plan Independence Vote

Lawmakers in the central republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina dismissed objections by Serb members and decided Saturday to hold a referendum on independence.

In Croatia, a three-week-old cease-fire was generally holding, despite reports of minor violations.

The Bosnian Parliament decided to hold a referendum Feb. 29 and March 1 on whether the republic should become an independent and sovereign state, the Belgrade-based Tanjug news agency reported.

Serb deputies walked out after protesting discussion of the issue. Parliament President Momcilo Krajisnik, of the Serbian Democratic Party, also left.

Serbs in Bosnia voted in a referendum earlier this month on the proclamation of an independent Serb state within Bosnia. Serb leaders in the republic have said they want to join a new, smaller, Serbian-dominated Yugoslavia.

The referendum in Bosnia could increase tensions. Serbs make up about one-third of the population of 4.3 million. Of the rest, about 43% are Slav Muslims and about 17% Croat.

In fighting Saturday, Croatian defense officials said the federal army fired 15 mortar shells on villages near the Adriatic port of Zadar. They reported sporadic small-arms fire onto Croat positions near Sisak, 30 miles south of the Croatian capital, Zagreb.

Croatia’s opposition weekly Slobodni Tjednik, in its latest issue, listed 60 people, mostly Serbs, who disappeared from Gospic in the Dalmatian hinterland last October. It said 19 of them had been killed, but did not say how it got that information.

Among the missing is Gospic’s deputy public prosecutor Djordje Kalanj, a Serb, the weekly said.

So far, the civil war has been confined to Croatia, which declared independence in tandem with Slovenia last June 25. Fighting then broke out. Thousands of people were killed and Serb irregulars and the federal army captured one-third of Croatian territory.

Analysts say the conflict could be far worse if it spread to Bosnia.