Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Yugoslav army readies return Date: Sat, 14 Nov 92 16:22:11 EST Message-ID: \SE A;WORLD \HD Yugoslav army readies return \SH 70,000 Croats in Bosnia said to be targets \BY Andrew Borowiec \CR THE WASHINGTON TIMES The Serbian-led Yugoslav army yesterday was reported preparing to strike Croatian forces in Bosnia-Herzegovina in what would be a major extension of the civil war bleeding the Balkan heartland. Yugoslav sources did not exclude diversionary operations against Croatia itself. The initial target of the strike is what Yugoslavs say is a force of 70,000 Croats in southeastern Bosnia, where they have carved out a Croatian enclave. Yugoslav President Dobrica Cosic threatened military action unless Croats halted what he called a major five-day offensive. In an urgent message to U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Mr. Cosic said the federal army, which withdrew from the area in May, intends to return to protect Serbs from Croatian attacks. Meanwhile, the latest cease-fire in and around Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina, appeared to have collapsed yesterday with a new outbreak of fighting. Gunfights were reported in the north and south of the republic. At the United Nations in New York, U.N. mediator Cyrus Vance called for more effective trade sanctions against Yugoslavia, which now comprises Serbia and Montenegro. He said large quantities of oil are getting through despite U.N. sanctions that were imposed because of charges that Yugoslavia was fomenting the war in Bosnia. But Mr. Vance blamed members of the European Community for helping trigger the civil war with their early recognition of the independence of Croatia and Slovenia. The U.N. Security Council is expected to adopt a resolution imposing a naval blockade on Yugoslavia along the Adriatic Sea and the Danube River. "Sanctions should be imposed on Croatia and not on Serbia," said Radmila Milentijevic, minister at large of the federal government, who is visiting the United States. "There are 70,000 Croatian troops in Bosnia, and the world remains mute." Although the leader of the Bosnian Serbs, Radovan Karadzic, said in Geneva that 38 Croatian brigades are fighting in the republic, Yugoslav government sources identified only 18 brigades, each with between 2,000 and 4,000 men. Some of these units appear to be newly formed and equipped with weapons purchased from Germany, Austria, Hungary and Czechoslovakia, said the Yugoslav sources, who supplied a detailed list of quantities and companies involved in the transactions. The Croats are led by officers who left the federal army after Croatia's secession nearly 18 months ago. Serbs, generally blamed for ruthless "ethnic cleansing" in Bosnia, accuse the Croats of atrocities against them. The warning by Mr. Cosic and the reported preparations for an offensive caught the 120,000-man federal army in the process of streamlining, chiefly because of a lack of money. When the troops pulled out of Bosnia, they left behind massive arms caches and ammunition dumps that subsequently were raided by Serbian, Muslim and Croatian irregulars. The military stocks were part of the preparations to resist an invasion. The arsenal left behind, said Serbian sources, included 231 tanks, 800 artillery pieces, 87 rocket launchers, 5,000 heavy-caliber mortars, 100,000 automatic rifles and 15,000 machine guns of various calibers. The arms purchased by Croatia since its independence include 120 German tanks, thousands of light automatic weapons, anti-tank rockets and ground-to-air missiles, Yugoslav sources said. A shipment of 40,000 camouflage uniforms was bought in Germany, which was the first nation to recognize Croatia's independence. * This article is based in part on wire service reports. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM