Croatian Leader Elected Yugoslav Head of State : Balkans: Breakaway Slovenia does not take part in election. An accord on army pullback is announced.

Yugoslavia’s collective presidency, in a move that could prop up the troubled federation, resurrected itself early today and elected Croatia’s Stipe Mesic as head of state.

The action in the federal capital of Belgrade removed a major obstacle to working out a European-mediated peace in the disintegrating country. Yugoslav Prime Minister Ante Markovic flew to Ljubljana and later announced an agreement whereby federal soldiers in secessionist Slovenia would return to their barracks, but it was unclear whether the army would abide by the agreement.

One of three conditions spelled out in the accord brokered by a European Community delegation was the election of a president and commander in chief of the armed forces.

The army has been acting on its own in the absence of an active presidency, which has been paralyzed for six weeks in a dispute over who should take the top post.

Earlier, defying an army ultimatum to abandon independence or face attack, Slovenes braced for a threatened aerial bombardment Sunday as sirens wailed and nervous reservists scurried to fortify defenses.

Slovenia, which did not take part in the surprise election of Mesic, has been threatened with the fury of the Yugoslav People’s Army for pursuing independence from the federation.

Air-raid warnings blared across Slovenia at 9 a.m., and officials broadcast reports that Yugoslav air force bombers had scrambled and were headed for Ljubljana.

An all-clear sounded an hour later, but many spent the warm, sunny day in cellars and shelters.

It was not immediately clear how Croatia’s acceptance of a prominent role in Yugoslav politics--after joining Slovenia in seceding on Tuesday--would influence the crisis threatening civil war in the Balkans.

If Croatia postpones its independence drive in return for being allowed its turn in the presidency, the Slovenes determined to pursue independence could find themselves isolated inside the federation as well as outside of it.

On the other hand, Croatia is unlikely to give up on its quest for sovereignty, since more than 90% of the republic’s 5 million residents backed a referendum on secession last month.

The agreement engineered during visits to Slovenia by Markovic and to Yugoslavia by the EC diplomats seemed at least to buy some breathing space in the escalating conflict between Slovenia and the federal army.

The army’s blunt declaration that it would crush Slovenia if it failed to comply with military conditions for a cease-fire initially gripped this tiny republic in terror.

Tension subsided as hours passed after the army deadline for submission, prompting speculation that the federal military force might be unable to muster the firepower to subjugate fierce Slovenian resistance.

The Yugoslav army launched a deadly assault on Slovenia on Thursday, two days after it declared independence from the federation. But the offensive fared poorly, with the federal forces suffering more casualties than the fledgling Slovenian reservists and the Yugoslav tanks and armored vehicles proving ill-suited to guerrilla warfare.

A hard-line Serbian Communist in the high command in Belgrade had threatened to launch “decisive military action” against Slovenia late Saturday unless the breakaway republic agreed to the army’s conditions for peace.

Slovenian lawmakers met in emergency session through the wee hours of Sunday before voting overwhelmingly to reject the ultimatum.

A six-point response issued by Parliament said Slovenia will continue to implement independence in “a gradual manner,” but it made clear that the steps taken so far will not be rescinded.

It said that Slovenes would observe a cease-fire as long as they were not attacked by Yugoslav troops. The Slovenian leadership insisted that the army must pull back to its barracks under the terms set down in a cease-fire agreement brokered by three European Community envoys.

A second EC delegation traveled to Belgrade again Sunday to try to salvage the peace plan.

The EC said it was freezing all aid to Yugoslavia until Belgrade could ensure compliance with the cease-fire.

Markovic met with Slovenian President Milan Kucan to press for adherence to the EC proposal, which would require Slovenia and Croatia to suspend their efforts at full-scale secession for three months so that another attempt at negotiating Yugoslavia’s breakup could be made. Later the two men announced what they called the agreement for the federal army to leave its positions in Slovenia.

Slovenian television announced after the visit by Markovic that federal troops would soon begin retreating to their garrisons, as demanded by the Slovenes.

But it was not clear whether the embattled prime minister, whose influence has diminished steadily over the past year, was entitled to speak for the Yugoslav army.

Fighting appeared to subside to occasional bursts of gunfire Sunday after a tense night when Yugoslav air force jets streaked overhead and Slovenes lay awake in fear of a looming attack.

During the parliamentary session that lasted until 4 a.m., deputies broke off debate on how to respond to the ominous military threat to take cover in a basement air-raid shelter.

Shots were fired outside the Parliament building, and at least three people were killed in Ljubljana, Information Minister Jelko Kacin said.

Slovenian authorities claim that at least 40 people have been killed and 85 wounded in the struggle against federal attempts to occupy Slovenia. The Yugoslav army, however, claims that the death toll is about 10.

The apparent cease-fire violations stirred defensive action by Slovenia’s neighbors. Austria deployed tanks to its border with Yugoslavia and halted all commercial flights into the country.

Chancellor Franz Vranitzky said in an interview on Austrian television it was clear that the EC mission had failed to secure the peace.

“It is clear that further international actions on Yugoslavia are absolutely necessary,” Vranitzky said.

His government has summoned an emergency session Tuesday of the conflict prevention body of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe.

His comments appeared to criticize the EC delegation that announced it had achieved a miraculous settlement of the age-old Yugoslav crisis after visiting for a few hours late Friday.

Neither the United States nor Western European countries have recognized Slovenia and Croatia as sovereign countries.

Who’s Who in Yugoslavia Some key players in Yugoslavia’s political and ethnic crisis: FEDERAL GOVERNMENT * Prime Minister Ante Markovic: Polished, 67-year-old Croatian technocrat became prime minister in March, 1989, on a platform of keeping Yugoslavia united by means of economic reforms and securing membership in the European Community. His reforms received widespread support from the West but bogged down because of fierce resistance by the leaderships of Slovenia and Croatia and the Marxist authorities of Serbia. Markovic, an electrical engineer who was president of Croatia before becoming federal premier, is widely believed to be the only person capable of keeping the country together. * Defense Minister Gen. Veljko Kadijevic: Half-Serb, half-Croat, the soft-spoken, 66-year-old Kadijevic fought with the partisans against the Germans during World War II. Afterward, he studied at several military academies, including the U.S. Command and General Staff School at Ft. Leavenworth, Kan. He is believed to be a political moderate and a strong supporter of Markovic’s reforms. * Chief of Staff Gen. Blagoje Adzic: The 63-year-old Serb has been repeatedly accused by Slovenian and Croatian authorities of being the main opponent to their drive for independence. SLOVENIA * President Milan Kucan: Slovenia’s 50-year-old president joined the Communist Party while studying law in Ljubljana and became a minor party official after graduating in 1963. He steadily rose through party ranks, participating in purges of Communist “liberals” in the early 1970s, and he was elected president of the Slovene Communist Party in 1986. He eventually joined a movement to reform the party and guided the state to its first free, multi-party election in 1990, when he was chosen president. Last Tuesday, he declared Slovenia’s independence from Yugoslavia. * Defense Minister Janez Jansa: The 33-year-old graduate of a defense school in Ljubljana was expelled from the Communist Party for his unorthodox views on the setting up of a Slovenian defense force separate from the federal army. He first came to public prominence when he was arrested in 1988 and was sentenced to 18 months in jail by a military court for stealing a classified document. Jansa was released after serving three months in a minimum-security jail. He took over Slovenia’s Defense Ministry after the victory of a nationalist, center-right coalition last year. CROATIA * President Franjo Tudjman: One of Croatia’s best-known dissidents, the 69-year-old Tudjman fought as a Communist partisan against the Nazis from 1941-45. He became the youngest general in the Yugoslav army in 1961 when he resigned from active service. An advocate of Croatian nationalism, he was sentenced to two years in prison in 1972 and to three years in prison in 1982 but served only a fraction of that time. Tudjman founded the authoritarian, center-right Croatian Democratic Union, which won the first free elections last year. Elected to the new Parliament as a deputy, he was voted president of Croatia by the legislature. * Stipe Mesic: Croatia’s member on Yugoslavia’s collective presidency has gained a reputation as a tough but constructive negotiator. Mesic, 56, was jailed by the Communists in 1971 for two years for advocating political freedoms. He was appointed Croatia’s first prime minister after elections in May, 1990, then was named its representative on the eight-man federal presidency. The routine annual changeover, in which Mesic was to become the first non-Communist chairman, was blocked in May by Serbia, which caused complete paralysis of the presidency. Early today, the collective body agreed to let Mesic assume the post.