Croatia will use military force to retake the last slice of its territory in Serb hands if it is not returned through negotiations by the end of November, President Franjo Tudjman of Croatia said yesterday.
In an interview in New York, Mr. Tudjman said that Serbia and Croatia are "close to a solution" in negotiations for the peaceful return of the territory, known as eastern Slavonia, which is coveted by both sides because of its rich farmland and oil fields. But he made clear that his patience was running out.
"The world should not deceive itself into thinking that Croatia will be prepared to postpone a settlement of this issue indefinitely," Mr. Tudjman said, speaking through an interpreter. He said his armed forces would wait until the new round of peace negotiations, to begin in Ohio on Oct. 31, were completed and then, if necessary, for the expiration of the United Nations mandate for peacekeeping forces in the area, at the end of November. But he said they will wait no longer.
Mr. Tudjman said he was confident that his forces could retake the area in "some days," even it the formidable army of President Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia is drawn into the battle.
The United States and the Europeans are concerned that a Croatian attack to regain Eastern Slavonia, which was seized by Serbian forces in 1991, could destroy the Bosnian peace process that Washington has so gingerly nurtured and widen the war in the Balkans.
A senior Administration official said yesterday that the Serbs had agreed in principle to return the region to Croatia, but that the two sides have not agreed on the timing, nor on measures to protect civilians in the regions.
The disputed region is home to tens of thousands of Serbs who, if experience is any guide, could be uprooted in a military operation, as tens of thousands of Croats were when the Serbs invaded four years ago.
In the forty-minute interview in his hotel suite, speaking mainly through an interpreter, Mr. Tudjman touched on other issues, including reported atrocities against civilians during a Croatian offensive last summer, the future of Muslim-dominated Bosnia as an independent country and charges that he is anti-Semitic.
In the offensive last summer, which was tacitly approved by the United States, Croatian troops and paramilitary units retook the region known as the Krajina. More than 100,000 Serbian civilians fled the area, and numerous Serbian civilians who stayed behind were murdered.
In the interview, Mr. Tudjman repeated denials that his forces have been responsible for the murders of civilians and burning and pillaging of villages that followed, although American and United Nations officials have documented a systematic terror campaign by the Croatian military.
"Whatever happened after the liberation of Krajina, this was in no way a violation of human rights by Croatian authorities," Mr. Tudjman said. "We certainly didn't wish the Serbs to leave. The Croation Government and I personally called on them to stay."
The Serbs left, Mr. Tudjman explained, because "they could not reconcile themselves with a democratic state."
Mr. Tudjman blamed the atrocities that followed the offensive on extremists, criminals, drug addicts and people dressed in Army camouflage uniforms.
In the past, Mr. Tudjman has called Bosnia an artificial creation that should have never been internationally recognized. Asked in the interview whether a Bosnian state will exist twenty years from now, he replied in English: "If I weren't President of Croatia I would answer that question. In this way or that it will keep on existing but at any rate not in its present form."
But Mr. Tudjman pledged not to use his country's federation with Bosnia to swallow up the part of Bosnia under Croatian control. "Not directly," he said. "We agreed to the proposal on the establishment of the Bosnian-Croat federation." So, he said, "in the interest of peace, we'll support it."
One indication to the contrary is that Croatia recently passed a new law that allows ethnic Croatians living in Bosnia to vote in Croatia's parliamentary election this weekend. The National Democratic Institute, a group financed by the United States Government and affiliated with the Democratic Party, has protested the move; thus far, the Clinton Administration has not.
Instead, the Administration has sought to emphasize the prospects for a viable independent Bosnian state in federation with Croatia.
To that end, Mr. Clinton met in New York on Tuesday with Mr. Tudjman and President Alija Izetbegovic of Bosnia, urging both of them to redouble their efforts to make peace and to "deepen and nurture" the federation between their two governments, a White House spokesman, Michael McCurry, told reporters after the meeting.
Mr. Tudjman sought during the interview to refute charges that he is anti-Semitic. In a book published in 1988, Mr. Tudjman discussed the writings of experts who said that the figure of six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust was vastly inflated, and that the actual number was closer to 900,000.
Asked yesterday whether he believed six million Jews perished in the war, he replied, "This figure, I mean all figures when they refer to the casualties of war, in a certain sense, are exaggerated." He added, "Since time immemorial, this has always been the case."
For emphasis, Mr. Tudjman pointed out that he had fought for four years against the Fascists in World War II. "I joined the anti-Fascist struggle with my best friend, who was a Jew."
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MADRID, Oct. 24 (By The New York Times) -- Bowing to international pressure, Bosnian Muslim and Croatian leaders pledged today to implement quickly a joint federation government in the half of Bosnia that they expect to control after peace talks with Serbs, which begin next week in Dayton, Ohio.
Once enemies, the Muslims and Croats agreed verbally to cooperate on running Bosnian city halls, regional legislatures and a broader federation Government by December, before NATO troops deploy to enforce the peace, officials said at an international peace meeting in Madrid.
"The American view is that NATO commanders should be instructed to deal only with representatives of the federation at the local level," said Daniel Serwer, a special United States envoy.
The one-day meeting brought together Bosnian Muslims and Croats, who have at times fought each other during the war, and envoys from 26 nations and 12 international institutions, which are likely to provide aid.
The federation's Muslim vice-president, Ejup Ganic, said the Croats also pledged to dismantle Herzeg-Bosna, a de facto local administration in Croat-held areas of Bosnia, after the joint federation starts running services like police, health and education.
But reflecting the continuing distrust in Bosnia, Ganic emphasized that the agreements would require constant international monitoring.
Mr. Serwer said Washington was satisfied with the meeting, although it wanted a stronger commitment about the return of thousands of displaced Muslims and Croats.
The deal announced in Madrid calls for about 80 city councils in federation territory to convene by Nov. 15 and select members of legislatures in eight cantons, or regions. By Dec. 10, a mechanism will be introduced to transfer power from the central Bosnian Government to the federation parliament.
Photo: President Franjo Tudjman of Croatia said yesterday that he would use force to retake the last Serb-held Croatian land if it is not returned by the end of next month. President Clinton met with Mr. Tudjman, right, and President Alija Izetbegovic of Bosnia and Herzegovina at the Waldorf-Astoria. (Stephen Crowley/The New York Times) Map of the former Yugoslavia showing location of Eastern Slavonia.
