Croatia Foreign Relations Serbia

Volunteer medical workers braved a hail of gunfire Saturday to evacuate more than 100 people seriously wounded in the siege of Vukovar, which has been sealed off from the rest of Croatia and pounded by Serbian and federal army artillery for more than a month. Two European nurses from the international humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders were badly injured during the relief effort when one truck of the 12-vehicle rescue convoy drove over a mine, the Tanjug news agency reported.

Serbia and Croatia on Wednesday reached an initial agreement on mutual recognition, seen as crucial for peace in the Balkans. Croatia declared independence from Yugoslavia in 1991 and later fought a war against Croatia's minority Serbs, who were aided by Serbia. Relations between the two strongest republics in the former Yugoslav federation have been strained since.

Serbian and Croatian politicians in Bosnia-Herzegovina have conspired to carve up the newly independent republic, but new eruptions of ethnic fighting Friday underscored the failings of a plan that ignores the interests of Bosnia's largest nationality, the Slavic Muslims. State-run media in Belgrade heralded the Serb-Croat agreement as a step toward peace in Bosnia, where at least 400 people have been killed since Serbs took up arms to protest independence two months ago.

The four barracks, austere brick buildings normally used to shelter transient Air Force officers, faced onto a bare quadrangle that was alternately scoured by blustery winds and glazed by snow. And for eight days, the atmosphere inside the Bosnia peace talks was bleaker still.

From this hilltop village overlooking the grimy outskirts of Belgrade, a concrete latticework stretches across a wind-swept slope, marking out hundreds of new grave sites for the victims of Yugoslavia's undeclared war. Dozens of the freshly poured frames at Lesce Cemetery are already filled with the coffins of teen-age soldiers and mounded with dirt. A wood cross stands in for a headstone. Aluminum figures spell out the departed's name. Some of the crosses are marked "N. N."

Among the gloomy byproducts of nationalist conflicts such as the one in Yugoslavia is the emergence of groups and parties armed not only with guns but with their own particular version of historical truth and manifest destiny. For those involved, it seems an exhilarating business. It is also dangerous: On Saturday night it cost the life of Ante Paradzik, a Croatian political activist.

The recent Croatian offensive captured a large swath of territory, redrawing the Balkan battle lines once again. With the conflict in the Balkans entering this new chapter, here's a review of what the many sides are after, where they are and, perhaps, where they are headed. What are the differences between Serbs and Croats? Although they speak nearly identical languages, Serbs and Croats are divided by history, religion and alphabet.

The four barracks, austere brick buildings normally used to shelter transient Air Force officers, faced onto a bare quadrangle that was alternately scoured by blustery winds and glazed by snow. And for eight days, the atmosphere inside the Bosnia peace talks was bleaker still.

The last time a cease-fire was declared for the warring Balkans, in the brittle cold of this past December, peace-broker and former U.S. President Jimmy Carter stumbled over some of the names and confused some of the parties. Yet the agreement held, at least for several weeks, largely because the Bosnian Serbs and the Muslim-led Bosnian government wanted wintertime cover to stoke their war machines and get ready for springtime offensives.

After years of trying to stay clear of the deepening Balkan tragedy, the Clinton Administration seems to have taken on the daunting task of guaranteeing the survival of the precarious state that American diplomats hope to create out of the chaos of Bosnia- Herzegovina. By agreeing Thursday to play host to Bosnia peace talks, President Clinton bound his government tightly to a process that--at best--will produce a country split between bitter ethnic enemies and with an economy in tatters.

In another goodwill gesture in the Balkan peace talks, Bosnia and Croatia have agreed to allow several hundred displaced families to return to their original homes, the State Department said Thursday. The agreement, described by the delegations as a "first step," came in a session with the presidents of Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia hosted by the U.S. and German delegations to the talks. Envoys from the United States and its allies are mediating the negotiations.

The last time a cease-fire was declared for the warring Balkans, in the brittle cold of this past December, peace-broker and former U.S. President Jimmy Carter stumbled over some of the names and confused some of the parties. Yet the agreement held, at least for several weeks, largely because the Bosnian Serbs and the Muslim-led Bosnian government wanted wintertime cover to stoke their war machines and get ready for springtime offensives.

After years of trying to stay clear of the deepening Balkan tragedy, the Clinton Administration seems to have taken on the daunting task of guaranteeing the survival of the precarious state that American diplomats hope to create out of the chaos of Bosnia- Herzegovina. By agreeing Thursday to play host to Bosnia peace talks, President Clinton bound his government tightly to a process that--at best--will produce a country split between bitter ethnic enemies and with an economy in tatters.

President Clinton announced Thursday that the parties in the Bosnian civil war had agreed to a cease-fire and would meet in the United States in three weeks to seek a permanent armistice--moves he hailed as a "solid step on the hard but hopeful road to peace." Clinton said the three rival groups had agreed to begin a 60-day cease-fire on Tuesday and, in a further broadening of the U.S. peacemaking role, will begin talks in the United States on Oct. 25.

Reassured by Secretary of State Warren Christopher that an American-brokered peace plan for Bosnia will not allow rebel Serbs to create their own state, the Bosnian government on Monday dropped its threat to boycott a new round of negotiations, clearing the way for what could be the most important talks in four years of ethnic war.

The recent Croatian offensive captured a large swath of territory, redrawing the Balkan battle lines once again. With the conflict in the Balkans entering this new chapter, here's a review of what the many sides are after, where they are and, perhaps, where they are headed. What are the differences between Serbs and Croats? Although they speak nearly identical languages, Serbs and Croats are divided by history, religion and alphabet.

Reassured by Secretary of State Warren Christopher that an American-brokered peace plan for Bosnia will not allow rebel Serbs to create their own state, the Bosnian government on Monday dropped its threat to boycott a new round of negotiations, clearing the way for what could be the most important talks in four years of ethnic war.

Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic isn't even on the ballot for Sunday's election, yet any of the possible outcomes of the parliamentary balloting will--sooner or later--bestow victory on the Balkan strongman. While Milosevic's five-year rule has seen Serbia fall from relative prosperity to utter ruin, he is on the verge of fulfilling a long-held nationalist dream of uniting the widely dispersed Serbs in a state expanded by brute force and brilliant maneuvering.

As world attention focuses on stepped-up fighting in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Western diplomats and military analysts in neighboring Croatia are quietly predicting that a major Croatian government offensive is in the making here. Based on troop movements, military intelligence and signals from the Croatian government, the analysts say Croatian forces will probably move on breakaway Serb positions before the end of the summer.

In this mountain village deep inside territory internationally recognized as Croatian, the uniformed Serbian rebels are on war alert, smoking cigarettes over their coffee and talking tough. "If the Croats want war, they'll get war," said a Serbian corporal, raising his eyes to catch a glimpse of the subtitled, afternoon American movie on Bosnian Serb TV. "But this time we'll do it properly." Across a buffer zone monitored by U.N.