Serb fighters carve out new border kind of legitimacy when they fi- checkpoint or amateur barricade. alities want war. It is the leaders tioned recent fighting between From Marc Champion nally claim the land," said Bozidar Many people cannot get to work, who are pushing it on us," said the army and police units at Erdut. in Dalj, Croatia Riba, the vice-mayor of Osijek, and the local economy has ground head of Dalj's angling club, who "Our guards are young and proba- the regional centre. He said the to a halt. By yesterday, Dalj was preferred not to give his name. bly drunk sometimes. They may WHATEVER the representatives new border had formed itself, virtually cut off, with the army A Serb in a Croat-dominated occasionally be the ones who start of Yugoslavia's collective presi- including all of the primarily blocking the bridge to Serbia and town, he went on Tuesday with a the shooting." But he was horri- dency might have resolved at their Serbian villages in Slavonia. barricades on the roads south and delegation of Serbs, Croats, Hun- fied by the fearsome firepower meeting in Belgrade to discuss the Mr Riba saw an organised cam- west. garians and self-described Yugo- which the. army, for the first time, bloodshed in Croatia yesterday, paign in which Serb extremists — From Croat officials to Serbian slavs to Osijek. There they dis- unleashed on Thursday on Erdut, the course of an eastern border or Chetniks — have alarmed vil- villagers, everyone was agreed on cussed with the mayor ways of killing nine guards and wounding between the hypothetical new lagers so much that they are bar- one point: that most of the blame keeping the inter-ethnic violence 17 while they slept. states of Serbia and Croatia had ricading themselves in and mortar for the continuing bloodshed lies out of their villages. "We are just waiting here for been fixed without them. shelling neighbouring Croatian with the republican politicians "I don't claim that we are them to come across the Danube One met it in the Serbian village villages. Celije, a small Croatian who met yesterday in Belgrade to pure," said Mato Matosevic, a re- with the tanks, that is the next of Bijelo Brdo at barricades village isolated among Serbs, has try to end it. "None of the nation- servist in the Dalj police. He men- stage," said Mr Kovcalijce. At manned by villagers toting ageing been deserted after heavy shell- least 40 tanks have been moved weapons, including an A1 Capone- ing. The Hungarian villages of into villages across the bridge era Thompson machine-gun. A Laslovo and Korog fear the same from Erdut. "We have nothing to grubby Yugoslav flag was draped fate. respond with but rifles, and no- across farm trucks at either end of "Once it begins these people where to go," he said. the village. The guards feared at- cannot stop, because they know Relations between the army tack and were reluctant to speak. they will go to jail if Croatia keeps and the Croatian authorities are From here, the new border control," said Ivan Kovcalijce, the at a low ebb. "They want to show would run south to include the police chief in Dalj. us that we have no choice but to Serb villages of Tenja, Ada and That was a tepid version of what accept Serbian policies," said Mr Markusica. Then it would curve to the boy with the Tommy gun in Kovcalijce. cut between the warring towns of Bijelo Brdo had to say. "If the On Thursday Croatia's railways Vinkovci and Mirkovci, turning Croats take charge they will said they would no longer south to meet the current border slaughter us like they did in the transport federal army soldiers or with the Serbian province of war. You foreigners do not under- equipment. The army's intentions Vojvodina. stand." Fears that the fighting are not yet clear, but Mr Riba held At the moment, only about 30 could spiral to unlimited barbarity out little hope for peace. "They per cent of the population be- have driven as many as 27,000 say they must stay to protect the tween this line and the current re- Serbs and many Croat refugees Serb minority, and we know the publican border is Serbian. "They from Slavonia. fighting will not stop until the need to intimidate everyone else The roads linking villages are army leaves, because the terrorists into leaving so as to have some deserted, but for the odd police are using it as a shield."