Yugoslavs OK a Troop Withdrawal, Agree to Talks on Recognizing Croatia

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina —  Serbian-dominated Yugoslavia agreed Wednesday to pull its army from a strategic peninsula in Croatia by Oct. 20 and said it will enter talks on recognizing Croatia, a former Yugoslav republic.

Britain’s Lord Owen said the agreement reached in Geneva between Presidents Dobrica Cosic of Yugoslavia and Franjo Tudjman of Croatia represents a significant step along the hard road to peace.

Diplomats trying to end ethnic fighting in former Yugoslav republics said earlier that relief flights to Sarajevo, the besieged capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina, could resume by the weekend.

Serbian gunners ringing Sarajevo held back artillery barrages early Wednesday in one of the quietest nights of the 6-month-old siege. But Bosnian officials reported 24 people killed and 165 hurt in Bosnia in the 24-hour period ending at 1 p.m. Wednesday, including seven dead and 54 wounded in Sarajevo.

Tudjman and Cosic, meeting for the first time, agreed on the date for troop withdrawal from the southern Prevlaka peninsula, which juts from Croatia’s Adriatic coast bordering Montenegro, and to set up a committee to discuss normalization of relations.

A pullout from the peninsula would permit an end to the Yugoslav blockade of the historic port of Dubrovnik, the scene of intense fighting during the six-month war in Croatia last year.