Leaders of Serb enclaves in Croatia and top Serbian goverment officials discussed Friday their differences jeopardizing the deployment of U.N. peacekeepers and fanning fears that war could erupt again in Yugoslavia.
The Serb camp has split over the peace plan, with Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic supporting the deployment of up to 10,000 peacekeepers to keep warring Serbs and Croats apart.The seven-month Serb-Croat war has killed thousands and left up to 700,000 people without homes. Serb irregulars backed by the Serbian-led Yugoslav army have seized one-third of Croatia, which along with Slovenia declared independence in June.
Milan Babic, leader of the Serb republic of Krajina in western Croatia, has accused his former patron Milosevic of betraying the Serb cause and vows not to disarm thousands of his irregulars or to allow peacekeepers inside his enclave.
Babic claims deployment of U.N. peacekeepers inside Krajina would leave its heavily Serb population exposed to attacks by Croatian forces from outside the region, which unlike his irregulars would not be disarmed.
Friday's talks were to focus on arrangments for deploying peacekeepers and overcoming Babic's objections, the Tanjug news agency said.
Babic, who was attending the meeting, has declared in the past that he would resist any effort by Milosevic to "impose the U.N. plan on the people of Krajina."
Babic and other Serb leaders insist that their territories, home to some of Croatia's 600,000 Serbs, will never be part of an independent Croatia.
Croatian President Franjo Tudj-man vows, however, never to cede the one-third of his territory now controlled by Serb irregulars and Serb-dominated federal troops.
U.N. Under Secretary General Marrack Goulding failed in talks this week to overcome the objections of Babic and Tudjman, and ruled out swift deployment of peacekeepers.