Vance Urges U.N. Peace Force Go to Yugoslavia

Special U.N. envoy Cyrus R. Vance, after receiving assurances from Croatia, on Wednesday recommended that the United Nations go ahead with deployment of a peacekeeping force in Yugoslavia, diplomats said.

They also said they expect that Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali will approve the recommendation to deploy a 10,000-member peacekeeping force. A final decision would rest with the Security Council.

Boutros-Ghali has called a meeting on the Yugoslav crisis today of the five permanent members of the Security Council--the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China--U.N. sources said.

Vance’s decision came after he received another letter from Croatian President Franjo Tudjman pledging cooperation with the U.N. force, despite reservations on some of the points the Croatian leader raised.

Tudjman had told the United Nations he has no further preconditions for the deployment of the peacekeepers, but he nevertheless presented a list of criteria, described as “technical” points.

But diplomats said the fact that Tudjman had pledged unconditionally to accept U.N. plans on how and when to deploy the peacekeepers persuaded Vance to recommend to Boutros-Ghali that the force be dispatched.

The Croatian leader had raised preconditions in an effort to cement the sovereignty of his republic, recently recognized by 45 countries but not by the United Nations or the United States.

The U.N. force would replace the Yugoslav army in three regions of the republic where Serbs now rule. At the heart of the debate is the question of Croatian authority over these regions.

Vance evidently also is convinced that Yugoslav civilian and army leaders in Belgrade could isolate Milan Babic, leader of a large Serbian enclave in Croatia who has fought against deployment of the U.N. forces.

Babic fears his followers would be left vulnerable to Croatian nationalists once the Yugoslav army withdraws.

Thousands have been killed in the seven-month-old civil war that began when Croatia and Slovenia declared their independence last June.