Yugoslav Army Alerted as Battles Rage in Croatia, Bosnia

The Yugoslav army put its forces on a higher state of combat readiness Monday, citing fresh Serb-Croat clashes in Croatia and fighting between Serb and Muslim forces in neighboring Bosnia-Herzegovina.

A statement issued by the Supreme Defense Council of Yugoslavia, made up of Serbia and Montenegro, said “the latest Croatian and Muslim offensives have worsened the security situation in the region and threatened the Geneva negotiations and the United Nations peace plan,” the Belgrade-based news agency Tanjug reported.

The council, chaired by Yugoslav President Dobrica Cosic, ordered the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to take all necessary measures to deal with the situation.

As Serb and Montenegrin leaders held a closed-door crisis session, also attended by Gen. Zivota Panic, the Yugoslav army chief of staff, Croatia pressed its four-day offensive across U.N. peacekeeping lines near the Adriatic port of Zadar.

Two French U.N. peacekeepers were killed in Serb-Croat cross-fire in nearby Karin Placa. Croatia announced that its forces have overrun the strategic Zemunik airport.

Serb officials say as many as 600 people, mostly civilians, have been killed since Friday; Croat leaders put the death toll at around 130.

Serb paramilitary leaders also were dispatching volunteers to Croatia. “They have added more volatile ingredients to an already combustible mix,” a Western diplomat said.

Croat commanders appeared confident they could establish a security corridor in regions along the Dalmatian coast outside the U.N. protected zones. About 700,000 Croats have been cut off from the heart of Croatia since Serb fighters captured and destroyed Maslenica bridge in 1991.

The clashes in Krajina, the Serb enclave in Croatia, raised fears that fighting would spread beyond the 65-mile line of confrontation. “We are trying to prevent it from exploding in other areas, but we are facing an extremely dangerous situation,” Cedric Thornberry, U.N. chief of civilian affairs, said in a telephone interview from Zagreb, Croatia.

Surprisingly, Serbia, under President Slobodan Milosevic, appeared to be playing down the fighting in Croatia. Milosevic made no move to stir up nationalist passions as he has done in the past. Instead, in a parliamentary address, he declared that Serbia has three priorities: “Peace, economic development and the fight against crime.”

But Milosevic’s favorite politician, ultranationalist parliamentary deputy Vojislav Seselj, accused Yugoslav President Cosic of striking a secret deal with his Croatian counterpart, Tudjman.

“We suspect and accuse Cosic of agreeing with Tudjman that Krajina should be attacked. Cosic is now worried Tudjman is going too far. Cosic has betrayed the interests of the Serbian people and he should resign,” said Seselj, who also commands a paramilitary unit that fought in the Serb-Croat war in 1991 and in neighboring Bosnia.

Significantly, independent analysts also speculated that the Serb and Yugoslav presidents had secretly agreed to Croatia’s taking control of the Maslenica region in exchange for securing the east-west corridor linking Serb-controlled territories of Bosnia to Serbia.