Organization: University of Illinois at Chicago
Date: Thursday, 15 Oct 1992 11:38:03 CDT
From: <U15231@uicvm.uic.edu>
Newsgroups: soc.culture.bosna-herzgvna
Subject: Serbian and Croatian Forces Reportedly Strike Secret Deal



        SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herecegovina (UPI) -- Serbian and Croatian forces in
Bosnia-Hercegovina have agreed to a cease-fire, a senior Serbian leader
said Friday, adding new fuel to speculation of a secret deal to
partition the war-torn former Yugoslav republic at the expense of its
Muslim Slavs.
        The truce was announced at a news conference in the Serbian
stronghold of Banja Luka by Col. Bogdan Subotic, the ``defense minister''
of the self-declared Serbian state that Serbian forces have been
fighting to capture.
        Subotic was quoted by the Serbia-based Tanjug news agency as saying
that the cease-fire was ``unconditional.''
        There was no mention in the Tanjug dispatch of when it became
effective or confirmation that it had gone into effect.
        The announcement came a day after Radovan Karadzic, the ``president''
of the self-declared Serbian state, said in Geneva that he and
representatives of the majority of Bosnia-Hercegovina's Croatian
community were close to reaching a truce accord.
        Leaders of the republic's Muslim Slavs, Serbs and Croats have been
meeting in Geneva in internationally mediated negotiations on ending the
war that erupted when Serbian forces launched an offensive in late March
to capture their self-declared state.
        The development added new fuel to mounting speculation that Serbia
and Croatia have secretly agreed to partition Bosnia-Hercegovina into
autonomous ethnic regions, a plan opposed by Muslim Slavs, the largest
community in the newly independent, former Yugoslav republic.
        ``I think there is a deal,'' said a Western diplomat who closely
tracks developments in Bosnia-Hercegovina from Belgrade, the capital of
Serbia.
        Such speculation began in May with the first of at least two meetings
held in Austria between Karadzic, whose forces are financed and armed by
Serbia's communist regime, and Mate Boban, the leader of the Bosnia-
Hercegovina branch of the Croatian Democratic Union of President Franjo
Tudjman of Croatia.
        Forces armed by Croatia and loyal to Boban this summer took control
of the Croat-dominated region of Western Hercegovina. He then declared
the area part of an ``Autonomous Croatian Community of Herceg-Bosna.''
        The announcement of the cease-fire came as Bosnia-Hercegovina's
Muslim Slav president, Alija Izetbegovic, held a second day of talks
with local Croatian leaders in Western Hercegovina in an apparent bid to
preserve what had been an alliance against the Serbs and prevent the
division of the republic.
        Sarajevo radio said that Izetbegovic, dressed in a military uniform,
told a news conference Thursday in the main Western Hercegovina town of
Mostar that he wanted to ``contribute to better cooperation between the
Muslim and Croatian peoples in the struggle against the common enemy,
but also to the building of a sovereign state of Bosnia-Hercegovina.''
        Izetbegovic continued his tour Friday with meetings in the
predominantly Croat town of Konjic, the radio said.
        The Bosnian government of Muslim Slavs, moderate Serbs and Croats
opposes the breakup of the republic, seeking to preserve its territorial
integrity and independence, international recognition of which it won in
early April.
        Fears of a Serb-Croat deal to divide the republic were renewed
following a meeting last week in Geneva between Tudjman and Dobrica
Cosic, the ultra-nationalist president of the rump Yugoslav federation
forged by Serbia and its tiny dependent, Montenegro, in April.
        Cosic on Friday signaled an apparent about-turn in Serbian policy
when he called for direct negotiations between Tudjman's regime and
Serbian rebels who captured 35 percent of Croatia in the civil war
ignited by the republic's June 1991 declaration of independence from the
former Yugoslav federation.
        Speculation of a Serb-Croat agreement on Bosnia-Hercegovina riose
further with the sudden capture Tuesday by Serbian forces of Bosanski
Brod, a Croat-controlled town of immense strategic importance because of
its location on the Sava River border between northern Bosnia-
Hercegovina and Croatia.
        ``Bosanski Brod fits in. It appears the Croats just pulled out,''
said the Western diplomat.
        Bosanski Brod had been connected to Croatia by the only Sava River
bridge left standing, thereby providing the main route for arms and
supplies from Zagreb to the coalition of Croatian and Muslim Slav forces
fighting in northern Bosnia-Hercergovina.
        The Serbs blew up the bridge on Wednesday morning after Bosanski Brod
was abandoned by well-supplied and experienced Croatian and Muslim Slav
units that had withstood seven months of Serbian land and air attacks.
        The fall of the town consolidated the Serbs' control of a vast swath
of territory claimed for their self-declared state and providing a vital
supply corridor running from the border of Serbia, across the northern
tier of Bosnia-Hercegovina to western areas of Croatia captured by
Serbian forces during last year's civil war.
        Meanwhile, fighting flared in northern Bosnia-Hercegovina while
clashes eased in and around the capital of Sarajevo.
        Serbian forces intensified their infantry and artillery attacks on
the predominantly Muslim Slav-Croat town of Gradacac and Sarajevo radio
described the situation there as ``critical.''
        ``Fierce clashes'' were under way in the Muslim Slav town of Brcko,
the radio said.
        It was mostly calm in Sarajevo with sporadic fighting and
intermittent shelling echoing across the city.