Life Goes On Even as Croatians Await Attack

At the sidewalk Carlstadt Cafe in Karlovac’s main square Thursday, the coffee came with Italian flavor and down-home advice: “If you hear something strange, run to the shelter. We could be hit at any minute,” said a friendly voice.

Karlovac, an hour’s ride southwest of the Croatian capital of Zagreb, cowers on the confrontation line between Croatian government forces and Croatian Serbs dug in behind a no-man’s-land a mile farther south.

When the Croatian government angers the Serbs, it is Karlovac, a river-side industrial and brewery town of 60,000, that gets a retaliatory bloody nose.

“We haven’t been shelled since May, and then only about a dozen shells. People had relaxed, but now tensions are extremely high again. We think we will be hit,” said Darko Lisac, a reporter for the local newspaper. The graceful 416-year-old Austrian-built city at the junction of four rivers is still bruised from Serbian artillery attacks in 1991 and 1993.

Current tensions have arisen from Croatian army attacks on rebel Serb forces in western Bosnia-Herzegovina. Thousands of Serb civilians were reported fleeing north after Croatian advances around the town of Bosansko Grahovo.

Traffic had ceased along the vital road linking Serb-held Knin in Croatia with Serb-held territory in western Bosnia because of the Croatian offensive, the Reuters news agency reported, quoting Bosnian Serb army sources.

U.N. sources in Zagreb say the offensive, which began early this week, is partly intended to relieve pressure on the Bosnian government enclave of Bihac, where 180,000 hungry people are under sharp attack from rebel Serbs.

The Croats, who reportedly have about 2,500 troops in action just south of Bihac, have pledged to support the U.N.-designated “safe area” but are also anxious to recover some of the one-third of Croatian territory captured by Croatian Serbs in 1991.

On Thursday, the Croatian Serbs responded to Croatian government military pressure with mobilization orders issued from their stronghold at Knin.

In eastern Bosnia, meanwhile, evacuations continued of Muslims from the enclave of Zepa following its conquest by Bosnian Serb forces this week. U.N. refugee officials denounced the ouster of Muslims as “ethnic cleansing,” and said 2,300 refugees had been bused from Zepa to areas held by the Bosnian government north of Sarajevo.

Here in Karlovac, which was known before the war for its music and theater and still has the best baseball team in Croatia, business as usual under a baking sun Thursday belied rumors of war. Shops were open, people strolled, and traffic cruised broad, tree-lined avenues where there are never any parking problems.

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The Karlovac Weekly hit the streets to report the crash of a locomotive and a truck, and the arrival of the video “Untamed Heart.” The 5,000-circulation paper carried ads for cutlery, hardware, computer software, a pediatrician, a bistro and a call-in sex talk line.

People want peace, said Ivan Vucic, a deputy mayor for the Karlovac region, but they are ready to fight for it if that is what it takes.

“I guess I am a little frightened of what may happen in the next few days, but I am proud of being a Croatian, and we must defend our lands,” Vucic said.

Merijan Begedin, a data-processing specialist, believes that Karlovac would progress rapidly if there was enough stability to allow new investment. “We want to be on the West side of the world,” he said.

Still, it is not development that people worry about but--once again--how strong their basements are.

“I have a 3-year-old daughter in kindergarten. The building is weak; if it is hit by a shell all the children will die. But I cannot keep her home,” said Begedin. “If the shelling starts I will rush to the school to get her. But, whatever happens, we will stay in Karlovac. This is our town.”