Disarming of Yugoslav Militias Delayed

Slovenia and Croatia defied federal army warnings to disarm their militias by midnight Saturday, and the deadline was extended.

A terse report from the state news agency Tanjug said, without elaboration, that the collective federal presidency extended the deadline until midnight Monday “following a Croatian request.”

Authorities in the two republics had put their defense forces on highest alert and citizens were hoarding food supplies, media reports from Slovenia and Croatia said.

Yugoslavia’s federal army had ordered Slovenia and Croatia to disarm “illegal paramilitary forces.” The republics contend that their militias are legal.

They seek more self-rule within the fractious Yugoslav federation of six republics and fear that the central government will crack down while the world is preoccupied with the Persian Gulf War.

“The Yugoslav army has not defined which illegal forces they have in mind,” Janez Jansa, Slovenia’s minister in charge of militia units, said by telephone. “Our territorial defense forces are not illegal by any means.”

Ethnic Serbs in western Croatia, in a state of virtual rebellion against Croatian authorities since August, are said to have complied with the order and returned most of the weapons they seized from police arsenals last year.

Croatia’s interior ministry said 228 rifles, 20 machine guns, 25 submachine guns, 76 handguns, dozens of hand grenades and thousands of rounds of ammunition had been returned by Saturday.

Milan Brezak, deputy interior minister of Croatia, said Croatia’s territorial defense militias are legal.

Reports from the Serbian province of Kosovo say ethnic Albanians, who seek more autonomy from the largest Yugoslav republic, have refused to give up weapons they allegedly possess illegally.

Croatia and Slovenia have center-right governments, as the result of Communist Party losses in elections last spring. They advocate turning Yugoslavia into a loose confederation of allied states.

Communist-ruled Serbia and its ally, Montenegro, want to maintain the centralized federation. They are supported by the federal army, which the Communists dominate.