The federal navy resumed its blockades of Dubrovnik and Croatia's other Adriatic ports Thursday, rejecting new peace overtures by the breakaway republic to end the country's 3-month-old ethnic war.
Fighting also continued to rage around Dubrovnik and the strategic east Croatian stronghold of Vu-kovar on the border with archrival Serbia, media reported.More than 600 people have been killed since fighting began after Croatia declared independence June 25.
Ethnic Serbs in Croatia have fought to join with Serbia, Yugoslavia's dominant republic, and the mainly Serb federal army has increasingly sided with them. Together they have seized about one-third of Croatia's territory.
In a statement Thursday, the armed forces said the naval action was taken because of Croatian violations of a Sept. 22 cease-fire, continued blockades of army barracks and attacks on military installations.
A federal general added that the Dubrovnik blockade was a direct response to occupation of a military holiday complex in nearby Kupari and "threats" against the southern naval base at Boka Kotorska.
Gen. Andrija Raseta, deputy commander of the 5th military district which covers much of Croatia, demanded Croatian forces surrender or leave Dubrovnik.
Raseta, speaking in Zagreb, said Dubrovnik should be declared an "open city" free of all armed forces. He said the army does not seek to harm the medieval city of Dubrovnik, dear to many Croats and a major tourist stop.
A spokesman for the Croatian general staff, Davor Domazet, dismissed Raseta's comments as "nonsense" and said the army wants to seize as much territory as possible.