Word: croatia
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Neither those locked in conflict within the country's borders nor those watching from a distance could explain exactly what guided events last week as the showdown between the Yugoslav People's Army and the secessionist republics of Slovenia and Croatia first pushed toward all-out civil war, then pulled back in a shaky cease-fire. What baffled most was not so much the sporadic bloodshed -- all but foreordained by centuries of ethnic antagonisms -- but the political and military muddle. No one seemed to be in charge, and the country appeared to be sliding into chaos. The federation's civilian...
...came and went. Another, negotiated a few days later by the Yugoslavs themselves, held into the weekend -- but only barely. As many as 180 army tanks and armored vehicles that drove out of the federal capital of Belgrade shortly before the new cease-fire rested along the border of Croatia, a republic whose push for independence holds potential for far greater violence than Slovenia's. The question was whether those columns were halted in response to the flurry of diplomatic activity -- or only to regroup for a major assault...
Last Monday both Slovenia and Croatia vowed to declare independence by midweek. Yugoslav federal Prime Minister Ante Markovic warned, "We would find ourselves sitting on a bomb, which could destroy us all." His words proved prophetic. On Tuesday each republic proclaimed its sovereignty. The next day tank columns moved toward border crossings, and the 20,000 federal troops in Slovenia were placed on combat alert. In the early-morning hours of Thursday, 40 tanks and 20 armored personnel carriers rolled toward the Slovenian capital of Ljubljana to secure the republic's main airport, and traded artillery and antitank fire with...
...republics, Slovenia seems the best poised to make a success of independence. Unlike Croatia, which contends with a militant Serbian minority, Slovenia is ethnically homogeneous. Internally it borders only Croatia. And Slovenia's economy shows a potential for robustness: although output shrank 9.6% last year, per capita production is on a par with the poorest members of the European Community. Still, foreign assistance is needed, so Slovenia had proceeded cautiously in order not to alienate potential donors...
Serbia, Yugoslavia's largest republic, has spent months poised on the brink of conflict with neighboring Croatia on behalf of the ethnic Serbs living there. But last week, the most harrowing for Yugoslavia since the end of World War II, Serbia was fighting battles entirely within its own borders. In a scenario that seems to have become a rite of passage in the new Europe, the people of the republic were pitted against an autocratic regime, Serbia's communist government. The showdown came in the capital, Belgrade, where anticommunist demonstrations paralyzed the city center for three tense days and nights...