Yugoslavia

The recognition that the Vance-Owen plan for Bosnia is dead andthat that supposed "state" has been partitioned coincides with the second anniversary of the Croatian and Slovenian secessions from Yugoslavia that initiated the war.These two years have shown that the original policy of opposition to those secessions was correct. Overall, the population of what was Yugoslavia has been impoverished; and three million people have been driven from their homes while perhaps 150,000 have been killed.

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia -- Marija Babic could not stay away, not while her generation and hometown were at war, not while history was taking place day to day instead of being lodged in musty books and documents.So, three weeks ago, the 20-year-old college student dropped her yearlong Holocaust study project in Germany, packed her bags, and returned home to the bombs and uncertainty of NATO's war against Yugoslavia."The problem I have with this country is I cannot leave it alone," she says. "I want to live here.

Sacramento, Calif. - In the midst of the present turmoil in Yugoslavia, one thing is clear: Croatia and Slovenia will be free, independent and democratic nations with or without the blessings of the so-called world powers.No action or inaction on the part of any government is going to reverse the will of the majority of Croatians expressed by every generation since 1918.For centuries, the Croatians and Slovenians fought for autonomy within the Hapsburg Empire. By the early 20th Century, they had succeeded to a great extent and had no desire to be absorbed into another multi-national state.

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia -- Despite overseeing a retreating army and a ruined nation, Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic sought yesterday to portray Yugoslavia as having won a moral victory in its 11-week war with NATO.In his first televised speech to his nation since NATO forces began bombing Yugoslavia on March 24, Milosevic said: "We've shown we have an invincible army, and I'm sure it's the best army in the world."Dressed in a blue suit and standing by a mantel at his White Palace, Milosevic emphasized that the United Nations and Western powers had "guaranteed" Yugoslavia's "sovereignty and territorial integrity."

WASHINGTON -- The United Nations sanctions imposed on Yugoslavia have cost the other Danube Basin nations more than $12 billion in the last 11 months -- more than they have cost Yugoslavia, the governments of countries in the basin say.With the tightening of the sanctions by the Security Council on April 26, the Danube basin countries' losses in transportation, trade and industry are expected to grow in the coming months.The embargo, begun in June against Yugoslavia, which consists of Serbia and Montenegro, has cost it $4 billion, Belgrade estimated last week.

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia -- When Helen Delich Bentley first began coming to Yugoslavia as a U.S. congresswoman in 1989, political expression was not as free, and somehow the position to take -- or not to take -- seemed easier to choose.Then, there was no street protest, no freedom of the press and no serious fears of Yugoslavia's breakup. Now, people debate the likelihood of civil war and swap accusations of who has persecuted whom more. And the Baltimore County Republican seems caught in the middle of the strife that plagues the land of her Serbian ancestors.

WASHINGTON -- With talk of a diplomatic deal to end the Kosovo crisis swirling beyond the courthouse, a federal judge went ahead yesterday to explore at length a court's power to second-guess President Clinton's use of U.S. military forces in Yugoslavia.U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman at one point suggested that the pace of military operations may overtake a court's review of war-making power under the Constitution, as has happened in past conflicts.Still, he showed no sign of backing off the issue and said he would rule early next week on whether 26 members of the House will be allowed to go forward with a lawsuit claiming that presidents cannot constitutionally send the military into action without Congress' approval.

Pittsburgh -- It is tempting to see the announced secession from Yugoslavia of the republics of Slovenia and Croatia as a victory for democracy, as the latest and perhaps ultimate step in a contest between these ''Western-oriented, democratic'' republics and the ''hard-line Marxist'' regime in Serbia and the communists in the army. The reality is hardly so comforting. In all the Yugoslav republics, but particularly in Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia, the democratization of politics and the free elections of 1990 have produced nationalistic regimes that are veering toward totalitarianism in their militarization, rigid control of the press and use of the machinery of government.

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia -- This country's warring factions greeted their latest cease-fire with a hail of bullets yesterday, when federal warplanes bombed five Croatian towns and clashes intensified for control of the devastated city of Vukovar.The 13th truce declared in nearly five months of fighting between Serbs and Croats went into effect at 6 p.m., after darkness and rain already had quelled the battles that raged throughout Croatia during the day.The cease-fire arranged between federal and Croatian negotiators, who have limited control over the combatants, was intended as a starting point in meeting U.N. conditions for deployment of a peacekeeping force in Yugoslavia.

WASHINGTON -- To the Americans it's "Noble Anvil," while NATO calls it "Allied Force."Those outside the Pentagon and NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, have a more generic name: Attacking Yugoslavia.Before each military operation, planners assign a code name for the mission. "Overlord" was the name Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower gave to the allied assault on Nazi-occupied France on D-Day in 1944, while Hitler chose "Barbarossa" for his ill-fated invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941.Today, U.S. commanders name a battle or mission with a computer system called NICKA, the "Codeword, Nickname and Exercise Term Report."