The bulk of the Croatian defenders of the embattled town of Vukovar surrendered Monday to the Serb-dominated federal army, widening Serbian control in eastern Croatia after three months of the most savage fighting in the Yugoslav civil war, the military announced.
There was no immediate reaction to the announcement from the secessionist Croatian regime, which has tried to control news on the Vukovar battle apparently because of the political backlash it is expected to suffer from its latest territorial loss.The communist Serb-led Yugoslav military negotiated the surrender with a representative of the Croatian regime in Vukovar in the presence of observers of the Zagreb-based European Community observer mission and the International Committee of the Red Cross.
A military statement said the surrender of "a majority" of the remnants of the town's Croatian National Guard and police force took place at Vukovar's soccer stadium and lasted the entire afternoon. It did not say how many Croatian fighters turned themselves over to federal troops.
But some hard-line Croatian fighters apparently refused to surrender. The Tanjug news agency reported sporadic small arms firing could be heard in the town after the capitulation.
As of 5 p.m. at least 5,000 townspeople who had been trapped by the 87-day-long struggle for control of the Danube River town had left Vukovar, the military statement said.
"The army is strictly controlling those leaving Vukovar. Women, children and elderly people could leave immediately to wherever they wanted," said the statement, adding that Croatian civilians were allowed to depart by bus for Croatian-held territory to the west of the town.