Yugoslav Premier Congratulates Serb Leader After Vote

Federal Premier Milan Panic sent lukewarm congratulations Saturday to Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic on his reelection but indicated he still opposes Milosevic’s nationalist policies.

It was not clear if Panic planned to challenge the election results. He had accused Milosevic of vote fraud and had said he would demand a recount.

In a telegram to Milosevic quoted by the state-run Tanjug news agency, Panic offered congratulations but also said “the democratic process, so strongly manifested during the election, cannot be stopped.”

Federal President Dobrica Cosic, a onetime Milosevic ally who now supports Panic, also issued a conciliatory statement saying he did not intend to resign, as he had said he would do if Milosevic won.

The developments appeared to indicate a relaxation of the tension that gripped Belgrade after the vote. But Milosevic’s victory still is likely to increase international pressure for foreign intervention in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

In a British Broadcasting Corp. radio interview Saturday, Baroness Chalker, Britain’s overseas development minister, called Milosevic’s victory “unfortunate.”

“We have to bring the Serbs under control because otherwise nowhere in the region is safe,” she said.

But U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali and Russian Foreign Minister Andrei V. Kozyrev, both in Geneva, said international military intervention against Serbian forces would escalate the Bosnian conflict.

Since Bosnia’s Muslims and Croats voted in February for independence, Bosnian Serbs have seized about two-thirds of the republic, and more than 17,000 people have died in the fighting.

Milosevic has spoken often about ending the war but has failed to follow through.

The former Communist is widely blamed for backing the rebel Serbs in Bosnia, and he is among those named by U.S. Secretary of State Lawrence S. Eagleburger as possible candidates for war crimes trials.

Milosevic defeated Panic, a Serbian-born California millionaire who ran on a peace platform, with 56% of the vote. Panic got 34%. Milosevic backers also won firm control of the Yugoslav federal and Serbian legislatures.

Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital, remained quiet, and hundreds of tons of relief supplies continued to pour in. Many Sarajevans were out searching for water and wood.

But there were tensions between the Bosnian government and the U.N. peacekeepers sent to the republic to help distribute relief supplies.

Gen. Philippe Morillon, the French commander of U.N. forces, left Sarajevo for the nearby town of Kiseljak after mortars landed near his residence on Christmas Day.

There was no indication of how long Morillon might stay away. He had blamed the mortar attack on Bosnian forces and demanded an inquiry from Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic.

In related news, Red Cross officials working to shut detention camps across Bosnia said that 128 Muslims and Croats were missing from the now-closed Manjaca prison camp.