A Serbian woman stands behind the bullet-riddled windows of the bus station at Glina, south of Zagreb. Federal troops occupy the town, with tanks guarding the border between and at Oraz, two miles from Croatian territory Young men in no rush to join old battle Others emphasise the cause of THE last Serbian town before you Tony Barber finds some signs of hope amid the violence an( thnic hatreds in eastern Croatia "Greater Serbia", which means cross into eastern Croatia is Sid, Slovenia could leave but Serbia pronounced Sheed. There, last would assert its control over eth- Wednesday, I asked a middle- lage of Sotin. We took a turning tional Guardsmen were killed There are many Mladens in and cars, the younger generation leased from service. Even in Ser- yesterday," said a young man. Croatia, Serbia and the other four of has, to some degree, bia, opinion is more divided about nic in other republics, espe- aged woman about the bloody by a maize field that led to farm- cially Croatia and Bosnia. clashes that had gone on for a houses defended by guardsmen The Yugoslav army had com- republics — apolitical men who a common language that was de- the value of fighting than is sug- week across the border between equipped with rifles and field pletely sealed off Borovo Selo. are horrified at the prospect of nied its parents and grandparents. gested by the strident statements If the generals maintain their Croatian militiamen and armed telephones — a Croatian military Using a small telescope I saw the losing their lives in a conflict That may not lessen the desire of, of the republic's communist lead- grip on federal policy, the ulti- militants of the Serbian minority. base. The commanders would not tanks lined up on either side of stirred partly by ethnic rivalries say, a young Croat for indepen- ers and blood-thirsty press. mate nightmare of a Serb-Croat "Please write the truth. The give their full names. One, a po- the road, ready to annihilate any they regard as ancient history. dence, but it means there is more The communist, mainly Serbi- war may still happen. But an are killing our children liceman in normal life, flashed an vehicle that dared approach. If young Serbs and Croats have reluctance to shed blood than ap- an, army generals see the crisis in equal danger is that hostilities will without mercy," she said. identity card with the surname "You can try to go to the village heroes, they are Bruce Willis and pears at first sight. apocalyptic terms: a life or death degenerate into scrappy conflicts Horvat (which means Croat). but we can't guarantee your safe- Michael Douglas, not General Another sign of hope emerged struggle for Serbia. But even they short of full-scale war in which, Near Tovarnik, the village appear to be divided. Some want village by village, the death toll marking the border, there were Another, who said his name ty," said the local commander, Blagoje Adzic, the Serbian chief- last week when mothers of con- Tomislav Puzak. of-staff of the Yugoslav army, or scripts besieged government to preserve Yugoslavia in its en- mounts by a few dozen every two Serbian checkpoints. At the was Ivan, said: "The Serbs are a month and neither side is shocked brutal mafia. They shoot indis- I went for a Turkish coffee and Franjo Tudjman, the Croatian buildings across Yugoslavia de- tirety, including Slovenia, even second, a policeman pointed to though almost no Serbs live there. enough to call a halt. the sign on my car saying Shtampa criminately. If we capture Serbs, brandy at his headquarters. "We President. In pop music, videos manding that their sons be re- (press) in Serbian Cyrillic script. we don't kill them. But the don't want to use our guns," he "I'd take that out if I were you," Chetniks [Serbian guerrillas] sighed. "I am not a soldier, I'm a he said. He meant that the Croats gouge out the eyes and slit the plumber. I have one daughter across the frontier, who use the throats of their prisoners." It was who is a nurse. The other is study- Latin scripts, might not appreci- a mirror image of the claim made ing biology. And here I am with a ate it. by the Serbian woman in Sid. Kalashnikov. It's not normal." Once in Croatia, it was clear The commanders refused to Ivan Simic, 30, was a roofer that tensions had risen dramati- say how many men they had un- who had worked in Germany. "I cally since I had last visited the der arms. But Horvat said they came back at the start of last year. area six weeks ago. Then, be- had "enough forces to deal with Now my two brothers are coming tween Tovarnik and Borovo a few the Serbian bandits". They back to defend their country. miles up the road, there had been claimed the Yugoslav army, Serbien — Scheiss." only one Croatian checkpoint, whose officers are mostly Serbian These experiences, in one of manned by uniformed police. by nationality, had supplied arms Yugoslavia's most ethnically in- Now I was stopped repeatedly, to Serbian irregulars in Croatia. flamed regions, might suggest a usually by young men in jeans and Borovo is populated mainly by Serb-Croat bloodbath rivalling T-shirts who, perhaps unnerved Croats, but just outside the town that of the 1940s is inevitable. by the Serbian plates on my car, lies the Serbian village of Borovo Passions seem too high, weapons pointed their Kalashnikovs at me Selo. There, in early May, a Serb- too easily available. But some evi- and ordered me out. They were Croat gunbattle left 15 people dence suggests otherwise. civilians drafted into Croatia's dead. In the past two weeks there Mladen, a Croatian friend, has National Guard, the embyronic have been explosions and fierce been called up by the Yugoslav army of the republic which de- exchanges of fire. A waitress in a army. Luckily, he is abroad. He clared independence on 25 June. Borovo cafe remembered my last will not be coming back. He does After a conversation by walkie- visit. How are things, I asked. not want to serve in the federal talkie, one long-haired youth told "Worse," she grimaced. "There army, the Croatian National me to drive behind him to the vil- are problems every day. Two Na- Guard or anything else.