Battle in Bosnia

For several hours one day last month, gunfire echoed through the densely wooded hills near the Bosnian town of Bugojno. At first, Yugoslav officials explained away the sounds of battle as an army training exercise. Then, as rumors began to fly, the Belgrade government admitted that its troops had fought off an invasion of sorts.

About 50 young Croat emigres had established a base in the highlands of central Yugoslavia and there fought a fierce battle against government forces. Last week Yugoslav infantry and militia were still searching for remnants of the raiding party, and President Josip Broz Tito called his closest advisers to his retreat on the Adriatic island of Brioni for an emergency meeting.

The invaders were members of the Ustase, a fascist organization that had ruled Croatia under Hitler during World War II, and has agitated from abroad for Croatian secession ever since (TIME, June 5). The raiders were believed to have been recruited from right-wing Croats now living in Western Europe and Australia. Making a mockery of Yugoslavia's border security, they crossed illegally into the country from Austria on June 26 with an arsenal of submachine guns, rifles with telescopic sights, pistols with silencers and a portable radio station. They stole a truck from a mineral-water bottling plant, hoisted the red-and-white checkerboard flag of Croatia, and drove 375 miles south. The band presumably expected to find popular support among the Croats, who make up the majority of the population in western Bosnia, a Ustase stronghold during World War II.

Instead of being welcomed as liberators, they were met by apathy or open hostility. They were also greeted by security police, civil guardsmen and soldiers stationed at one of Tito's heavily guarded hunting lodges a few miles away. Yugoslav authorities claim they "broke up and destroyed" the Ustase unit, killing a dozen of the attackers and wounding another dozen. One Yugoslav officer and nine soldiers were killed, and half of the raiders escaped into the mountains. The age of the invaders --most were in their early 20s and had emigrated only in the past year or two --came as a shock to Yugoslav officials, who have always maintained that the Ustase's following is limited to Croat fascists of the older generation.

The mini-invasion took place at an exceptionally tense time for Yugoslavia. The government's announcement that it had routed the raiders came two days before four young Croat nationalists were to have gone on trial in Zagreb, the Croatian republic's capital. Although that trial has now been postponed until August, a second trial, involving seven other youths, began last week. Both groups are charged with instigating last year's strike by 30,000 students at Zagreb University, and plotting to separate Croatia from the Yugoslav federation by force.

Conceivably the Ustase hoped its foray into Bosnia would trigger a wave of sympathetic demonstrations on behalf of the accused separatists. If so, the plan misfired badly. Instead of aiding the defendants, the raid came as a windfall for the prosecution; it gave credence to Belgrade's repeated accusation that Croat "chauvinists" at home are linked with Croat extremists in exile. In fact, the timing of the incident was so convenient for the prosecution that it prompted speculation--so far unconfirmed --that the Yugoslav secret police, who have heavily infiltrated the Ustase, may have lured the invaders into staging the raid. But the more serious question was whether the attack was a reckless, one-shot adventure or whether it marked the start of a new, concerted campaign of Ustase terrorism within Yugoslavia.

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