Croatian Army Attacks Rebels, Widening War

Brushing aside last-minute diplomatic peace initiatives, Croatia this morning launched a powerful attack against rebel Serbs in the country’s Krajina region.

The U.N. command here said that heavy artillery began bombarding the rebel capital of Knin at first light, with between 200 and 300 shells striking the city in the first half-hour of the attack.

Tanks spearheaded about 100,000 Croatian troops massed on the border with Krajina and attacked dug-in Serb defenders near the town of Gospic, about 90 miles southwest of Zagreb, U.N. spokesman Chris Gunness said.

Col. Andrew Leslie, U.N. chief of staff in the Knin area, told reporters by telephone that artillery barrages had begun on Knin and other major towns at 5 a.m. In Knin, the fire was directed at the center of the town, Leslie said.

U.N. observers lost count after 300 detonations in the first few minutes. Two hours later, shells were falling on the city at the rate of five or six a minute, he said.

“There are dead people. Those who are alive are hiding,” Leslie said.

Associated Press reporter Julijana Mojsilovic said from Knin early today that parts of the city were on fire. Surrounding hills were wreathed in smoke from dueling Croatian and rebel Serb artillery, she said.

Early today, the American Embassy in Zagreb warned U.S. citizens to leave Croatia “if it is possible to do so securely.”

“Sudden attacks with missiles, rocket and artillery by Serb forces against Croatian cities are very probable,” the embassy said in a statement.

The embassy statement named Zagreb airport, the resort cities of Split and Dubrovnik, and the border cities of Karlovac, Zadar and Sibenik, as likely targets of attack.

“Americans must be aware that it is dangerous to move about during a general alert or after attacks begin,” the embassy said.

A Croatian attack that seized Serb-occupied Western Slavonia in May brought retaliatory shelling of Zagreb with more than 200 casualties.

In a dawn statement broadcast this morning, Croatian President Franjo Tudjman urged Krajina forces to lay down their arms.

“After four years of fruitless negotiations, Croatia was forced to undertake measures to re-integrate its temporarily occupied territories,” Tudjman’s statement said. The secessionist Serbian minority in Roman Catholic Croatia seized nearly a third of Croatian territory when the Yugoslav federation disintegrated in 1991.

Croatia attacked today after a long meeting of its National Security Council on Thursday night rejected Serb concessions offered earlier in the day to American and U.N. negotiators.

“We deeply regret that Croatia has abandoned the peace process,” Gunness said. “As a peacekeeping force, we bitterly regret that Croatia has chosen the path of war.” About 10,000 lightly armed U.N. troops were posted along 1991 cease-fire lines. The fighting left them at risk as potential hostages.

U.S. Ambassador Peter Galbraith, who had traveled to Belgrade to meet with Croatian Serb leaders, offered a list of their concessions to Tudjman Thursday.

“We feel strongly that the Serbs’ agreement offered the basis of a fair solution,” Galbraith said this morning when wakened with news that war had begun. “Obviously right now we will be following events closely. Our first concern is for the welfare of the civilian population and for the safety of U.N. peacekeepers.”

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Galbraith carried the results of his mission to Tudjman’s residence on the northern outskirts of the capital Thursday.

“We see no reason for war at this time,” he told reporters on Tudjman’s doorstep.

Diplomats were cautiously optimistic after a day of last-minute maneuvering, but the Croatians were cold to diplomacy.

One presidential aide said privately that the Serb agreement Galbraith had secured seemed a ploy to buy time.

In the hours before the dawn attack, the official Croatian media cold-shouldered both the American initiative and similar agreements accepted by the rebel Serbs at U.N.-sponsored talks in Geneva.

“The Croatians got what they wanted. They just couldn’t take ‘yes’ for an answer,” Galbraith lamented this morning.

The United States, major European powers and the United Nations all pressed to win Croatian acceptance of the rebel concessions and avert war, diplomatic sources said.

Momentum for war, though, was building along the tense cease-fire line. Both Croatia and the Krajina Serbs were fully mobilized by Thursday, with virtually their entire armies face to face in the field.

Gunness said Thursday that Croatia had at least 100,000 troops in attack positions and the Krajina Serbs had about 50,000 troops dug in facing them.

“Our assessment is that Croatian forces are either at or very soon approaching their optimum deployment. They are battle ready and poised for offensive actions,” Gunness said, prophetically describing the situation as “highly volatile.”

Fifteen thousand to 20,000 Croatian soldiers, backed by tanks and heavy artillery, were at launch positions around the front-line town of Sunja, 50 miles southeast of Zagreb, the Croatian capital, Gunness said.

With the rebel Serbs’ self-declared capital of Knin the obvious key target, U.N. observers also reported Croatian troops ready to strike from positions in Adriatic coastal areas and from west-central Bosnia, where they captured two key towns from Bosnian Serbs in recent days, cutting supply lines to Knin.

Military sources said the Croatian army, which includes more than 60,000 conscripts, could not stay at maximum alert indefinitely: its choice was to attack or to stand down within a few days.

On Wednesday, Galbraith flew to Belgrade, the Serbian and Yugoslav capital, to meet with Milan Babic, the Krajina Serbs’ “foreign minister.” Babic agreed to five points, Galbraith said, “that substantially fulfill the conditions of the Croatian government.”

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The Krajina Serbs said they would immediately withdraw their troops helping to besiege the Muslim Bihac area of neighboring Bosnia-Herzegovina. The Serbs made the same vow to U.N. special envoy Yasushi Akashi in Knin last weekend but did not keep it, U.N. spokesmen noted. Babic also told Galbraith that the rebel Serbs would: agree to immediately open an oil pipeline to Croatia through their territory; accept U.N. border monitors, and allow reopening of the Zagreb-Split railroad through Knin.

Critically, the Krajina Serbs also agreed to re-integration into Croatia under the terms of a U.S.-brokered plan that would grant Serb communities substantial self-government and high-profile international human rights guarantees in exchange for their acceptance of Croatian sovereignty.