Yugoslavia Near Breaking Point as Talks Fail

Slovenia on Friday declared its intention to secede from Yugoslavia later this month while Croatia boycotted critical negotiations aimed at saving the federation, portending an ominous turn in relations among ethnic groups already poised for civil war.

All six Yugoslav republic presidents were to have met in Belgrade in an eleventh-hour attempt to avert a violent breakup of the federation.

But Croatian President Franjo Tudjman refused to attend the talks after Serbian Communists called a rally outside the meeting place to accuse Croats of plotting genocide. Slovenian President Milan Kucan stormed out of the session after the vitriolic demonstration by about 5,000 Serbian nationalists began, saying that nothing could be accomplished under such “impossible conditions.”

Slovenia’s prime minister then served notice on the Belgrade government that it is giving up on what were already slim prospects for continued affiliation with Yugoslavia.

Prime Minister Lojze Peterle said in Ljubljana that Slovenia’s Parliament will annul all federal laws on Feb. 20, thereby withdrawing the republic from the Yugoslav state cobbled together in 1918 from the remnants of Ottoman Turkey and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Yugoslavia has been limping from crisis to crisis over the last month and tensions between Serbs and Croats have escalated to such a fevered state that the chance for a peaceful resolution is now considered minimal.

Croatia and the Serbian-dominated federal army only narrowly avoided an armed clash two weeks ago and the rift has widened since the federal government last week ordered the arrest of the Croatian defense minister for allegedly planning an armed rebellion.

Friday’s meeting was the third frustrated attempt at resolving political, economic and social differences that have strained the federation to the breaking point. Slovenia and Croatia also pulled out of the last session Jan. 31, in protest of what they said was army meddling in political affairs.

Croatia’s participation had been uncertain until Thursday, when the federal leadership appeared to distance itself from an army declaration supporting communism.

The Belgrade-based federal government continues to operate under a Communist-drafted constitution, although four of the six republics last year voted out Communist leaders in favor of democracy.

While the army ostensibly protects all of Yugoslavia, its officer ranks are 70% Serbian and openly supportive of the hard-line communism practiced in Serbia and Montenegro.

Slovenia, the wealthiest and most Western republic, already had made significant moves toward secession before the unity talks collapsed. More than 88% of voters in the republic of 2 million supported a Dec. 23 referendum calling for full independence within six months.

In his declaration Friday, Peterle said that Slovenia has abandoned hope of restructuring relations within Yugoslavia and will now concentrate on avoiding a violent breakup.

The republics in favor of continuing strong federal rule and those opposed to it--namely Slovenia and Croatia--”are so far apart that a healthy society cannot be created,” Peterle said.

Croatia’s quest for independence is more troubled because of the 600,000-strong Serbian minority living in the republic of 4.5 million people. Serbia claims that minority is endangered by the independence movement, while Croatia’s leadership says that those fears have been artificially inspired to give the army an excuse to invade.

Vuk Draskovic, head of Serbia’s largest opposition party, warned Friday that Serbs have been duped into believing that the federal army is on their side in the conflict with Croatia, while it actually seeks only to reassert Communist rule throughout Yugoslavia.

The latest crisis began on Jan. 9, when the federal government ordered all republic police and reserve units to disarm. Croatia and Slovenia refused, claiming that the federal army was moving to topple their new democracies.

A Jan. 25 compromise, by which Croatia was to disarm its reservists and the federal army was to call off its full military alert, temporarily eased the threat of civil war. But federal authorities last week ordered the arrest of Croatian Defense Minister Martin Spegelj, reviving hostilities and the specter of violence.

The order to detain Spegelj stems from an army documentary, aired on Belgrade television on the night of Jan. 25, purporting to show the Croatian official planning the assassination of senior army officers and their families should Croatia be invaded.

Spegelj has insisted that the videotape is falsified, and Tudjman has refused to remand his defense minister into federal custody.

“The demand for his arrest is a demand for the removal of the democratically elected government in Croatia,” Tudjman said, warning that if he were to capitulate, “after Spegelj there would be others--the interior minister, the prime minister and who knows who else.”

Asked if Croatia would respond with force in the event of Spegelj’s arrest, Tudjman said, “If necessary, yes.”

Croatia and Slovenia both had warned before the unity negotiations that they would secede from Yugoslavia unless a looser relationship among the republics was agreed to before June. The northern republics want a voluntary and limited alliance, somewhat like the European Community.

Peterle said that his government sees no point in continued efforts to resolve the federal crisis and announced that he would ask Slovenia’s Parliament to abolish all federal authority in the republic when it convenes on Feb. 20. The 240-member legislature strongly favors secession and its endorsement of Peterle’s decree is virtually assured.

Croatia’s Tudjman made no immediate declaration about his republic’s future within Yugoslavia.

Presidential spokesman Mario Nobilo said that Tudjman refused to go to Belgrade for the negotiations after learning late Thursday that a Serbian Communist women’s organization planned a rally at the site of the talks. A statement issued by the sponsoring group said that the gathering would protest Croatia’s failure to detain “all protagonists of the monstrous plans for the murder of members of the Yugoslav People’s Army,” referring to the Spegelj case.

“Down with the fascist Croatian leadership,” the crowd chanted as the unity talks were in progress.

Tudjman saw no point in trying to negotiate in such an atmosphere, Nobilo said.

Since the videotape was broadcast two weeks ago, Serbian media have repeatedly insisted that it proves Croatia has restored a fascist leadership of the type that ruled during World War II. At least half of the 1.7 million Yugoslavs killed during the war were slain in ethnic battles that raged alongside the broader conflict.

A fourth negotiating session was set for Wednesday in Belgrade, although Slovenia and Croatia are expected to use the forum to push for an accelerated breakup of Yugoslavia, if they attend at all.