Croatia Has Stockpiled Big Arsenal in Case It Is Attacked, Official Says : Yugoslavia: Fugitive defense minister accuses federal army of plotting to restore Communist rule in republic. Intrigue holds threat of bloody civil war.

Croatia’s defense minister, on the run from a federal arrest warrant, confirmed Wednesday that the republic recently imported weapons and has a large arsenal at its disposal should it need to repel an attack by the Communist-controlled Yugoslav army.

In an interview at a Croatian government building, Martin Spegelj accused the army of plotting to restore hard-line rule in Croatia and vowed that the will for democracy would overpower any aggression.

Spegelj, who has been dodging around Zagreb with a heavily armed security escort for more than a week, told a tale of conspiracy and intrigue worthy of fiction but one that poses the very real threat of pushing Yugoslavia into a bloody civil war.

He has been at the center of hostility between the Serbian-dominated army and Croatia since the army released a videotape purporting to show him planning the assassination of Serbian officers and their families.

A Croatian counterintelligence agent who helped the army prepare the incriminating film committed suicide last week. Zagreb officials said that he apparently was unable to live with his complicity in what they said was a blatant attempt to discredit their new democratic leadership.

The videotape was “an ugly frame-up,” Spegelj said, contending that most of it was falsified. “There was some truth to it. But it consists of half-truths and full lies,” he said.

The film aired on Serbian television during a tense standoff between Croatian and federal forces two weeks ago.

Croats believe that Serbian Communists are trying to scare the 500,000 ethnic Serbs living in Croatia, hoping that an outbreak of interethnic violence would provide the pretext for sending in federal troops to restore order and Communist rule.

The military brass in Belgrade ordered Spegelj’s arrest last week, and federal President Borisav Jovic, a Serbian Communist, has said that the army will stop at nothing to detain Spegelj.

But federal authorities appear to be proceeding with caution, perhaps because of fear that the forcible detention of Spegelj would trigger violent retaliation by Croatia, setting off what could easily become an uncontrollable and unprecedented blood-letting.

Serbs, the largest ethnic group in the volatile mix of nationalities making up Yugoslavia, harbor deep resentment toward Croats because of the atrocities committed by fascist Ustasha forces that ruled Croatia during World War II.

A facade of nationalist unity was imposed during four decades of postwar Communist rule, but it collapsed after the 1980 death of Yugoslavia’s longtime leader, Marshal Josip Broz Tito. Free elections last year threw out Communist governments in Slovenia and Croatia, while Serbia endorsed its hard-line regime.

Pro-Communist Serbian officers occupy about 70% of the army’s top ranks, and they have ordered the militias of the nation’s republics to turn in their weapons or face a federal crackdown.

Croatia’s refusal to disarm sparked the current confrontation between that republic and the army, and the situation was aggravated by the videotape and subsequent order for Spegelj’s arrest.

Like other Croatian leaders, Spegelj said that the republic has no intention of capitulating to a federal leadership manipulated by Serbia.

The 22,000-strong Croatian police force and an equal number of reservists are adequately armed and trained to defend the republic in case of a federal military intervention, Spegelj said.

“Whether we are able to defend the democratic processes . . . I can categorically state yes,” Spegelj said. “It’s not just a question of weapons but of the people’s will for democracy, which is so strong as to overpower all weapons.”

The federal army confiscated all weapons from army units in Croatia last May after the republic’s Communist government was defeated at the polls by the Croatian Democratic Union.

Croatia had to go abroad for its firepower because the federal government in Belgrade, which is also the Serbian republic’s capital, refused to rearm the 240,000 federal troops stationed in Croatia, Spegelj said.

“The government of Croatia had no other option but to acquire weapons abroad. But all of this was done legally,” Spegelj said.

He refused to specify what countries sold arms to Croatia but made no attempt to dispute widely published reports that Hungary delivered at least 20,000 AK-47 automatic rifles late last year.

There have also been unconfirmed reports that Croatian police are in possession of shoulder-launched rockets and anti-tank weaponry. Western diplomats in Zagreb have said that they have occasionally seen such weapons.

More than 200,000 firearms are registered for personal use in the republic--primarily hunting pistols and shotguns, and authorities are aware that a “certain quantity” of illegal weapons are in the hands of civilians, Spegelj said.

The defense minister and other Croatian officials said that the republic of 4.5 million residents has no tanks or aircraft and insisted that its military posture is purely defensive.

Spegelj, a 63-year-old career soldier, appeared relaxed and confident during the 90-minute interview, showing little sign that he fears he will be arrested. However, the diminutive lieutenant general has been escorted by policemen armed with machine guns during his movement between government offices in Zagreb’s Old Town and several safehouses.