20 SEPTEMBER 1991, NOTES COMPILED BY
JULIE HACKING, GRAPHIC NEWS ©

FEDERAL TANKS CROSS
CROATIAN BORDER

THE CROATIAN defence ministry has said that the large armoured Yugoslav column which left Belgrade yesterday has entered eastern Croatia. Heavy fighting was reported around the villages of Nijemci, Tovarnik and Lipovac. Tanks were said to be pushing towards Vukovar and Vinkovci where Croat forces have surrounded federal army barracks. The convoy consists of about 100 T-55 and M-84 tanks, plus armoured personnel carriers and trucks towing 155mm howitzers. Elements of the 6 mile convoy had been headed towards Vukovar and Osijek, according to reliable sources in Belgrade. 

Fighting raged overnight in the Croatian stronghold of Vukovar, and heavy artillery and rocket attacks rained down on Osijek for six hours late on Thursday and early this morning, according to the Yugoslav news agency, Tanjug.

Air raid warnings sounded in the Croatian capital, Zagreb, and other Croatian towns this morning.

Heavy fighting was also reported around the Yugoslav army barracks in Vinkovci and at the strategic Adriatic port of Sibenik, where the federal army is besieged in its bases. Air raid warnings there this morning sent scared residents rushing for shelters. The port of Split is under naval blockade.

Croatia’s 4.75 million people include about 600,000 ethnic Serbs. Serb guerillas and hard-line Serbian president, Slobodan Milosevic, have demanded that Croatia give up Serb-populated areas if it secedes; these areas and others in Croatia have been captured by Serbian forces in the last two months. The cities of Vukovar and Osijek are among the few points still held by Croats in the republic’s eastern border region with Serbia. 

Nearly 500 people have died, including a French jounalist killed by a mine south of Zagreb, thousands have been wounded, and the republic’s economy almost wrecked in the battles since Croatia’s June 25 declaration of independence.

Despite the violence, the European Community decided on Thursday against sending an armed peacekeeping force to Yugoslavia. Following this, Canada’s premier, Brian Mulroney, urged the United Nations to send a peacekeeping force. His call has been backed by Australia, Germany, Austria and Hungary. Canada, Australia and Germany have large Croatian immigrant populations. Austria and Hungary border Yugoslavia and Austria has publicly favoured granting recognition to Slovenia and Croatia as independent states.


Sources: Tanjug News Agency, Associated Press reports, BBC