Leaders of U.N.’s Peace Mission Arrive in Yugoslavia : Civil war: Indian general says he is ‘determined to succeed’ despite latest violation of cease-fire in Croatia.

Only hours after the deadliest violation of a 2-month-old cease-fire, an Indian general and three dozen administrators arrived in Yugoslavia on Sunday to launch Europe’s first United Nations peacekeeping mission.

Lt. Gen. Satish Nambiar told journalists at Belgrade airport that he and other senior officers for the 14,000-troop deployment would not be deterred by the latest outbreak of violence.

“As of today, I don’t see any problems. I am determined to succeed,” Nambiar replied when asked if the renewed fighting could derail U.N. intervention.

The U.N. mission, delayed for months by disputes among the Yugoslav combatants and by concerns about its $634-million annual cost, got under way as the federal army and Serb guerrillas resumed heavy artillery attacks on the eastern Croatian city of Osijek.

Seven people were killed and 30 were wounded in the overnight shelling from Serb-held positions, according to Croatian media. It was the most serious rupture to date of the relative peace restored to Yugoslavia by a U.N.-brokered truce that took effect Jan. 3.

In addition to the Osijek fighting, two federal soldiers were killed in the contested town of Gospic, near Croatia’s Adriatic Sea coast, and artillery fire was also reported in the tense, front-line region about 60 miles east of Zagreb, the Croatian capital.

A Western diplomat in Belgrade speculated that the attacks on the eve of the U.N. command’s arrival were the work of renegade units of the Yugoslav People’s Army opposed to foreign intervention. The military high command has pledged support for the U.N. deployment.

Nambiar met with Yugoslavia’s acting defense minister, Gen. Blagoje Adzic, and planned to set off for Zagreb today to work out with Croatian and federal army officials where the first contingent of peacekeepers was needed most.

By mid-April, the United Nations will scatter its forces along a 350-mile front line between Croatian national guardsmen fighting for independence and Serb rebels backed by the federal army in their demands to remain aligned with Serbia in the Yugoslav federation.

U.N. soldiers from more than 30 countries are expected to undertake the dangerous task of disarming hundreds of thousands of gun-toting guerrillas and civilians, as well as overseeing the withdrawal of tens of thousands of federal troops from Croatia.

About 10,000 Yugoslavs are believed to have been killed since Croatia and Slovenia declared independence from Yugoslavia last June. Macedonia and Bosnia-Herzegovina have since followed suit, leaving only Serbia and Montenegro in the crumbled Balkan federation.

Leaders of all six republics have been invited to Brussels today for negotiations aimed at finding a peaceful resolution of their conflict.

Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic was reported to be considering a boycott of the European Community-sponsored talks unless the EC lifts sanctions imposed on his republic, which has been blamed for instigating the war in Croatia.

But Milosevic is likely to be eager to leave Belgrade for the day because anti-Communist activists plan a major demonstration against him. Increasing numbers of Serbs accuse Milosevic and his Socialist Party of driving the Serbian republic to ruin by waging a war he couldn’t win and draining the economy to pay for it.