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Serbs Refuse to Negotiate in Croatia

Serbs Refuse to Negotiate in Croatia
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August 5, 1991, Section A, Page 6Buy Reprints
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A European Community peace mission to Yugoslavia foundered today when the Serbian republic refused to go along with a proposal for a Community-monitored cease-fire between rebel Serbs and military and police forces in the republic of Croatia.

The mission's failure portends an escalation of fighting in Croatia, where about 250 people have died since Croatia and Slovenia, the federation's wealthiest and most Western-leaning republics, declared their independence on June 25.

After the delegates from Serbia, the largest, most populous republic, boycotted a meeting of Yugoslavia's collective presidency and the three European foreign ministers today, the chairman of the peace mission, Hans van den Broek of the Netherlands, warned that Yugoslavia was "heading for a catastrophe"

"Our mission in Yugoslavia failed," Mr. van den Broek said at a news conference after the aborted noon meeting. "We have to conclude that it is not really helpful to continue at this point in time with further discussions."

The European Community ministers left the country after two days of shuttle diplomacy between the capitals of Yugoslavia's feuding republics.

Outgunned by rebel Serbs who have been waging an uprising for almost a year, Croatia has pleaded for foreign monitors to observe the conflict since serious talks with the European Community began last month.

The Croatian government charges that Serbia, with the support of the Serbs in Croatia and some elements of the Serb-dominated Yugoslav Army, is fighting an undeclared war of expansion against Croatia. The national army denies the charges. Serbia, led by its Communist President, Slobodan Milosevic, opposes an international solution and says it is only helping to protect Croatia's Serbian minority from "genocide."

Under the community's proposal, as many as 500 international observers and support workers were to have been dispatched to Croatia. A monitoring mission is already observing a cease-fire in Slovenia. Discussions Are 'Stagnating'

"We propose that part of the monitoring of such a cease-fire should take place in a combined effort by units of the federal armed forces, representatives of the authorities in Croatia and representatives of the Serb population in Croatia in coordination and cooperation with European Community monitors," Mr. van den Broek said today.

"On a number of these vital elements, the agreement of one party is lacked," he said, referring to Serbia. "And that means that the discussions in fact are stagnating, if not being stonewalled. We regret this. We deplore this.

"The only thing we can do before our departure now is to leave behind another urgent appeal to have reason," Mr. van den Broek said. Croatian Police Gunned Down

After today's European Community failure, a fragile cease-fire agreement reached independently by members of Yugoslavia's eight-member presidency on Saturday morning seems unlikely to hold for long.

Masked Serb gunmen wearing police uniforms shot three Croatian traffic policemen to death today in Karlovac, a mostly military town near Zagreb, Croatian officials said. At least one other shooting death was reported in Slavonia, in Croatia's eastern panhandle, where about 80 people were said to have died in fighting on Thursday.

Mr. Milosevic has said that Serbia would agree to dissolution of the Yugoslav federation of six republics only if the country's internal borders are redrawn so all Serbs are brought within a single state. Croatia adamantly opposes that idea because it would stand to lose the parts of the republic populated predominantly by its 600,000-member Serbian minority.

But if the European Community pullout was an attempt to shock the Serbs into compromise, Serbian officials seemed undaunted. Serbia's representative to the federal presidency, Borisav Jovic, charged Croatia and unnamed foreign countries with deception.

"Shameful games are being played out before the eyes of the Yugoslav and world publics with the goal of hiding the true situation in the republic of Croatia, to hide and protect those guilty parties behind the repression of Serbs and the civil war which it has provoked," Mr. Jovic said today. "Every effort is being made to involve the republic of Serbia in this conflict and to put the responsibility on Serbia for what the leadership in Croatia and those who support its chauvinist and secessionist policy are responsible for."

Serbia acknowledges giving Serbs in Croatia up to $4 million in aid, including everything except weapons. But Western diplomats say they are convinced that the Serbian government has furnished the Serbs in Croatia with weapons from the arsenal of the republic's national guard. Serbs Charge Trickery

Mr. Jovic said the Serbian delegates did not attend today's meeting because they were tricked into believing that it would begin at 1 P.M. instead of noon.

The departure of the European Community mission is apparently a serious setback for Croatia's Government. But the republic's president, Franjo Tudjman, said that the foreign ministers assured him before they left Belgrade today that the community's peace efforts in Yugoslavia were not over.

"For us it was important that they have personally gained direct knowledge of the situation," Mr. Tudjman said. "Representatives of Serbia showed every lack of cooperation. What was agreed to even last evening was rejected today."

Croatia will probably appeal to the Helsinki Conference and the United Nations to call for a peace conference on Yugoslavia and for peacekeeping forces to be sent to the country, the Croatian president said.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 6 of the National edition with the headline: Serbs Refuse to Negotiate in Croatia. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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