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

BOSNIA HERCEGOVINA
DRAWN INTO CIVIL WAR

THE CROATIAN defence ministry has said that the large armoured Yugoslav column which left Belgrade yesterday has entered eastern Croatia. Parts of the convoy encountered Croatian forces immediately after crossing the border from Sid, 60 miles west of Belgrade. Heavy fighting was reported around the villages of Nijemci, Tovarnik and Lipovac. Tanks were said to be pushing towards Vukovar and Vinkovci where Croat police and militia have besieged federal army barracks for weeks. 

Remaining sections of the convoy crossed into ethnically mixed Bosnia Hercegovina in a drive towards Banja Luka, 160 miles west of Belgrade, a Serbian stronghold of the central republic. Bosnia-Hercegovina has mobilised its defence forces, demanding the withdrawal of Yugoslav army units. Sarajevo Radio said a large column of Serbian army reservists and tanks flying the Serbian flag left earlier in the day from Banja Luka, heading towards the nearby central Croatian border. In recent weeks, the town has been used by Serbian militants as a staging ground for attacks into central Croatia.
Unidentified gunmen exchanged fire with another convoy of of 175 military and private buses and trucks, whose vehicles carried license plates from the neighbouring, Serb-dominated republic of Montenegro. These vehicles, carrying an estimated 2000 troops, were seen moving through the Mostar area towards the Adriatic coast, where Croatian forces are besieging other federal army units, notably at the strategic port of Sibenik. Air raid warnings there this morning sent scared residents rushing for shelters. The port of Split is under naval blockade.

Fighting raged overnight in the eastern 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. Heavy fighting was also reported around the Yugoslav army barracks in Vinkovci.

Air raid warnings sounded in the Croatian capital, Zagreb, and other Croatian towns this morning.
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.
 
 Before today’s escalation of the crisis, nearly 500 people had been killed, including a French jounalist who died when a mine exploded south of Zagreb, thousands have been wounded, and the republic’s economy has been practically 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