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UN Troops Under Fire in Eastern Slavonia
ZAGREB, May 24 (Reuters) — A United Nations military post came under fire from suspected Serb irregulars in a separatist enclave due to be gradually reintegrated with Croatia by 1997, a U.N. spokesman said on Friday. Croatian state radio said Serb forces shelled two villages along the truce line in Eastern Slavonia on Thursday night, causing no injuries, but U.N. officials only knew of a shooting attack on a U.N. Jordanian guard post in the area at the time.
Philip Arnold, spokesman for the U.N. Transitional Authority in Eastern Slavonia (UNTAES), said small arms and machine gun rounds with possibly a few mortar bombs were fired at Jordanian troops near the village of Privlaka. "The Jordanians used their weapons to shoot back. UNTAES forces have clear rules of engagement. They're instructed to use weapons to protect both themselves and free movement (of civilians)," he told reporters in the Croatian capital Zagreb.
Arnold reported another exchange of fire with UNTAES troops early in the week. No injuries were reported in either incident. The clashes were unusual in a so-far peaceful reintegration process. UNTAES had not identified the attackers but Arnold said they seemed to be disaffected members of Serb rebel forces that must disband or withdraw to nearby Yugoslavia under a 30-day demilitarisation plan that took effect on Tuesday.
Members of the ultra-nationalist Serb "Scorpion" paramilitary unit, evicted from Eastern Slavonia's main oil field by UNTAES troops last week, may have been involved in the shooting, he said. "We escorted 150 or 175 them to the (Yugoslav) border but a few dozen, 50 or 60, wandered off in civilian clothes inside the
enclave and it's quite possible they are responsible — (as) isolated, renegade bandits in the area," said Arnold.
"These people pose no threat to the general population," he emphasised. "UNTAES troops have mechanised battalions with quite strong weaponry including tanks, artillery, helicopters. No force is able to meet that power (in the enclave)." He said General Dusan Loncar, commander of Serb forces in the enclave, was preparing to demobilise or withdraw units in full compliance with the demilitarisation plan. Many heavy weapons and some troops have already been withdrawn to Serbian-led Yugoslavia, U.N. sources say.
UNTAES, endowed with 5,000 enforcement troops, took charge of Eastern Slavonia in January under a U.S.-brokered treaty, staving off Croatian military action that could have unhinged the new peace in neighbouring Bosnia. Eastern Slavonia, a fertile plain in the Danube River basin, was seized in a 1991 Serb minority rebellion against Croatia's move to independence from federal Yugoslavia. Telephone and postal services between the enclave and government territory have been partially restored under U.N. supervision so far and Croat refugees from the enclave are to be resettled in their old homes following demilitarisation.
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Berserkistan, Red Sky at Night In Eastern Slavonia, Waiting for the Serbs to Go Home
Berserkistan, May 21 · Serbs Demilitarizing Eastern Slavonia
Berserkistan, May 7 · Team Berserkistan First Across Yugoslav Confrontation Line
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