U.N. Seeks to Revamp Force in Balkans, Avert Croatia War

Hoping to pull the Croats and Serbs back from what he called “the brink of a major war,” U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali proposed Friday that the Security Council approve the broad outlines of a reduced and revised peacekeeping mission in Croatia--leaving the details for him to negotiate later.

The United States and four allies--Russia, Germany, Britain and France--quickly circulated a series of draft resolutions that would divide the current U.N. mission in the former Yugoslav federation into three separate missions for Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia, and would ask Boutros-Ghali to work out the details of the Croatia mission later. The council is expected to pass the resolutions next week.

The creation of a new Croatia mission would end the crisis that was precipitated Jan. 12 when President Franjo Tudjman asked the United Nations to withdraw all of its 12,000 troops from Croatia when the mandate for the operation expired March 31.

Tudjman, bowing to pressure from the United States and other governments, relented. After a meeting with Vice President Al Gore last week, he said he would accept a reduced peacekeeping force as long as it controlled the borders with Bosnia and Serbia and prevented military equipment from reaching the Croatian Serbs.

Boutros-Ghali said his special envoy, Thorvald Stoltenberg of Norway, had failed so far to persuade the Serbian minority, who control an area in Croatia known as Krajina, to give the broad Gore-Tudjman plan “their practical cooperation.”

But he said he believes “the basis could be established for agreement.”

A U.S. official said council members envision an agreement that would reduce the current force of 12,000 peacekeepers to about 8,000. A thousand would be assigned to the border, the official said.