Thousands of people in Croatia's main Serbian rebel enclave rallied in support of their leader, who accused his estranged political and military patrons in Serbia of using "torture" and "threats" to try to force his consent to the deployment of U.N. peacekeepers.
The Serbia-controlled rump Yugoslav State Presidency Monday denied the charges. But its members made conflicting statements about allegations they were prepared to order the Serb-dominated Yugoslav army to remove Milan Babic as "president" of the "Republic of Serbian Krajina" declared Dec. 19 in half of Croatia.Borisav Jovic, Serbia's hard-line presidency representative, told state-run Serbian radio and television the plan would be implemented "with Babic's acceptance or his ouster."