Yugoslav Clashes Belie Peace Moves : Balkans: Conflicting actions highlight the dilemma facing the EC as it seeks an end to the crisis.

As rival leaders of Yugoslavia’s fragments met Wednesday in Brussels to reassure Western Europe of their commitment to peace, fighting in Croatia killed six and Serbian rebels tightened their grip on vast areas they hope to wrest from Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The politicians’ promises and the conflicting actions of their followers highlighted the dilemma faced by the 12-nation European Community as it struggles to negotiate an end to the Balkan crisis with leaders who strike a conciliatory pose abroad while fanning the war flames at home.

The latest outbreaks of fighting have been in Bosnia-Herzegovina, the volatile central republic where no single nationality makes up the majority of its 4.4 million residents. More than 30 were killed last week in the worst violence to rack the republic since World War II.

Shootouts and bombings were reported throughout the tense republic Wednesday, although a cease-fire agreed to three days ago continued to keep the casualty toll below last week’s level. The heaviest fighting occurred in the town of Bijeljina, near the border with Serbia, and in the scenic Muslim city of Mostar in the republic’s south.

Croatian radio reported four killed and a dozen wounded when the Serbian-led federal army shelled Vinkovci and Valpovo in eastern Croatia.

Two federal soldiers were killed in an ambush near the Serbian stronghold of Knin in southern Croatia, according to the Belgrade-based Tanjug news agency.

Meanwhile, the resumption of peace talks in Brussels, under the guidance of Britain’s Lord Carrington, provided the first opportunity in four months for the warring leaders to discuss their differences. Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic stopped participating late last year when the EC announced that it would recognize the breakaway republics of Slovenia and Croatia, which it did Jan. 15.

At each of the numerous negotiating sessions conducted by EC diplomats, the Yugoslav warriors have pledged cooperation and promised sincere efforts toward peace. However, more than a dozen EC-mediated cease-fires collapsed within hours of their signing by Milosevic, Croatian President Franjo Tudjman and a cast of Communist generals representing the pro-Serbian federal army.

On March 18, EC diplomats also squeezed an agreement out of Bosnia-Herzegovina’s ethnic leaders to divide their integrated republic into Muslim-, Serbian- and Croatian-controlled cantons, heeding the pleas of Serbian politicians that only such a political division could preserve peace and unity.

A week later, Radovan Karadzic, the radical leader of Bosnian Serbs, declared that the Serbian-controlled cantons would secede and merge with fellow Serbs in the remnants of Yugoslavia, sparking clashes with Muslims and Croats who want the republic to be recognized as an independent state.

Serbian militants in the southern Bosnian city of Trebinje intensified their moves toward ethnic division Wednesday when they announced that all police and military activity in Serbian cantons would be under their exclusive control.

Against the backdrop of continuing domestic conflict, the six presidents of Yugoslavia’s current and former republics agreed in Brussels to remove obstacles to trade and transport and promised to negotiate their differences.

Despite those fresh assurances, armed barricades separated Serbian-held areas from other ethnic communities, and fierce clashes were reported along the front line that stretches from the Adriatic Sea to the border with Hungary.

Karadzic also launched a last-ditch campaign to deter EC recognition of Bosnia-Herzegovina, warning that conferring statehood would probably escalate the ethnic clashes.

EC foreign ministers meet Monday to consider recognition of Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia.

After months of war and as many as 10,000 deaths that followed June declarations of independence by Slovenia and Croatia, the EC in December called on the six Yugoslav republics to apply for diplomatic recognition. Only Slovenia and Croatia were granted recognition a month later, although Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia also applied.

The EC bowed to Greek objections to recognizing Macedonian independence because of a dispute over the republic’s name, which is the historical designation of a large area of northern Greece.

Bosnia was advised to hold a referendum on independence, which it did a month ago, garnering 99% support among the 68% of voters who cast ballots.

The EC will oversee another attempt at negotiating a new political structure for Bosnia-Herzegovina at meetings in Sarajevo on April 11 and 12.

Williams reported from Belgrade and Havemann from Brussels.