Yugoslavia asks U.S. to curb ‘terrorists’

Press, 25 March 1980, Page 9

Yugoslavia asks U.S. to curb ‘terrorists’

NZPA Belgrade The Yugoslav Government has asked the United States to crack down on a New York-based organisation of Croation separatists that Belgrade is convinced is responsible for terrorists attacks abroad.

The attacks, according to well-placed Yugoslavs, include the bombing last Monday of a Yugoslav bank branch on Fifth Avenue in New York. The organisation, the Croation National Congress, is headed by Janko Skrbin, a Croat who is wanted a<s a war criminal in Yugoslavia on charges that he collaborated with the Germans during the existence .of the independent fascist State of Croatia from 1941 to 1945. The sources said the Yugoslav Government was seeking his extradition. At a time when President Tito lies dying at a Ljubljana hospital, the activities of Croation terrorists are a cause of concern to the Belgrade Government. For years,

small but well-organised bands have carried out killings and bomb attacks against Yugoslav targets abroad. They have generally not managed to work inside the country and have virtually no support within the Republic of Croatia iteelf. At a news conference in Munich last month, the vicepresident of a group calling itself the Croat National Council vowed that what the spokesman said was a worldwide organisation would step up its activities when President Tito died. In New York, the Croation Nation Congress placed a half-page advertisement in the “New York Times”, three days before the bomb explosion near the thirtieth floor office of Jugobanka. The explosion caused damage but no injuries. Headlined, “Yugoslavia will not survive,” the advertisement suggested that Marshal Tito’s death would mean the cbllapse of the Yugoslav federation and attacked American support for the country. The Foreign Mini-s-

try was so incensed about the advertisement that it complained to the United States.

Yugoslav Government sources who are involved in monitoring the activities of external enemies said that American toleration of Croation separatists groups was exerting a strain on Yugo-slav-American relations.

Since 1946, five Yugoslav diplomats have been murdered abroad by terrorists. There have been very few incidents inside Yugoslavia despite an open-bordere policy that allows easy access. The last incident, a bomb on a train, occurred in 1977.

The most spectacular Croation separatist attempt to ignite an uprising came in 1972, when 19 armed terrorists slipped across the border from Austria and commandeered a truck to take them to the mountains of Bosnia. They found no local support and all but four were killed by pursuing troops. The four were tried and three were executed.