NEWS ANALYSIS : Violence Stirs Sympathy for Slovenia : Yugoslavia: The army’s harsh reaction to secession has softened international calls for unity at any cost.

The Yugoslav army’s excessive use of force to deter Slovenian secession has stirred international sympathy for the rebellious republic and pushed Western governments a little closer to de facto recognition of its disputed sovereignty.

U.S. and European leaders warned Slovenia before it seceded from Yugoslavia last Tuesday that it would face a diplomatic cold shoulder if it pulled out of the crisis-torn federation without an agreement with the other republics.

But when the Serbian-led federal army unleashed a punishing assault on the tiny republic last week, some foreign governments appeared to give new weight to Slovenia’s claim that it was forced to act unilaterally to escape an alliance that lacks a full commitment to democracy.

No foreign state has recognized Slovenian independence, and formal acceptance may be months or years away.

But the unexpected harshness of the army’s reaction has prompted even the most ardent opponents of separatism to drop insistence on Yugoslav unity at any cost.

Slovenian leaders believe that because they have been victimized, the West may be softening its position.

In a weekend television interview, Deputy Secretary of State Lawrence S. Eagleburger said the U.S. government “never said never” in discussions of recognizing the secessionist states.

Eagleburger also acknowledged during the interview on Cable News Network that the Belgrade government of Prime Minister Ante Markovic might not be in control of the republics for which Markovic claimed to speak.

“It’s not a big change in the wording, but it may be a big change in the meaning,” said Matjaz Sinkovec, head of the international affairs committee in the Slovenian Parliament. “The United States has never openly questioned the role of the federal government before. We think this is a big change. We just hope it’s not too late.”

Washington and Western Europe opposed secession to avert instability and ethnic violence on the Balkan peninsula, where ancient nationalist rivalries and desires for independence were neatly boxed up by Communist repression for 45 years.

Since last year’s ouster of Communist governments in free elections in Slovenia and Croatia, those pent-up desires for national identity and sovereignty have inflicted new fractures on the 73-year-old federation already riven by deep cultural, religious and historical differences.

As there are no serious ethnic conflicts or border issues within Slovenia, the West’s resistance to independence was seen by many Slovenes as a desire for more convenient trade and diplomacy, as well as a desire to avoid setting an unruly precedent for secession movements in the Baltic states and elsewhere in Europe.

When the federal army attacked Slovenia with tanks and an aerial blitz Thursday, the move startled many of Yugoslavia’s neighbors and set in motion a process of diplomacy that, of necessity, has given Slovenia equal status with the fractured federation.

Before declaring independence, Slovenia had sought international assistance in negotiating a peaceful breakup of Yugoslavia but was rebuffed by Western countries that said they preferred to deal with a single federation rather than numerous small states.

Since the violent clashes set off by the army intervention, foreign officials have moved quickly to step in and mediate the crisis.

Summoned by Austrian Foreign Minister Alois Mock, the new Conflict Prevention Center of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe convened Monday in Vienna. Results were not immediately known, but the meeting was shaping up as the first real test of how effective the 35-member CSCE can be in resolving complicated ethnic problems plaguing a number of European countries.

The foreign ministers of Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Italy brokered a short-lived truce between Slovenia and the federal government in Belgrade over the weekend. Although the peace accord appeared to be unraveling for lack of commitment from the renegade Yugoslav army, the “troika” delegation sent by the 12-member European Community approached Slovenia and what is left of Yugoslavia as equal entities.

Austrian Chancellor Franz Vranitzky distanced his government from other West Europeans by indirectly criticizing the EC delegation for attempting to arrange a truce without a clear grasp of the Yugoslav issues.

“Anyone who still talks of the need to maintain the territorial integrity of Yugoslavia fails to see that the problem now is quite different,” Vranitzky said. “The individual political groups in Yugoslavia can no longer negotiate or talk to each other.”

A German parliamentary delegation visited Ljubljana over the weekend to press for a peaceful settlement of the conflict.

At a news conference after their meetings with Slovenian leaders, the Social Democrats of the Bundestag warned the army and the federal government in Belgrade that they would have to compromise with Slovenia and Croatia on independence or the West would be forced to take the secessionists’ side.

“The international community’s approach to the crisis has considerably altered in the last few days,” said Karsten Voigt, foreign policy chief for his party in the Bundestag.

Norbert Gansel, another leading Social Democrat, accused the Belgrade leadership of encouraging army excesses and warned that its position “accelerates the international trend toward recognition for Slovenia and Croatia.”

Slovenian President Milan Kucan told reporters at a news conference that he is convinced that the “barbaric aggression” committed against his republic will encourage the West to soften its opposition to independence.

Some Slovenian politicians, however, complain that the West clings to a policy of wishful thinking in expecting the breakaway republic to turn against public sentiment and realign itself with the federation that savagely attacked it.

“We want the West to have the courage to recognize and correct its mistakes” in its understanding of Yugoslavia’s crisis, said Joze Pucnik, head of Demos, the political coalition that rules Slovenia.

He and other political leaders argue that the West’s position seeks to force Slovenia to stay in an undemocratic and costly alliance that has denied Slovenes’ right to self-determination.

Yugoslavia’s History

925-1110: Kingdom of Croatia.

1102: Leaderless Croatia accepts Hungarian king.

1389: Ottoman Turks defeat Serbs at Battle of Kosovo.

1521: Ottoman ruler Suleiman captures Belgrade.

1527: Croatia falls under Hapsburg sovereignty.

1718: Turks withdraw from Croatia.

1830: Serbia gets autonomy within Ottoman Empire.

1878: Treaty of Berlin: Serbia and Montenegro become independent, Macedonia returns to Ottomans, Bosnia and Herzegovina are administered by Austria-Hungary.

1912-13: Serbia acquires North Macedonia as Balkan Wars end.

1914: Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand assassinated at Sarajevo by pro-Serbian terrorist. World War I begins.

1918: Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes created.

1929: King Alexander changes nation’s name to Yugoslavia.

1941: King Peter flees. German and Italian forces invade.

1944: Belgrade liberated by Soviets and Josip Broz Tito’s partisan resistance forces.

1946: Tito forms Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia with six republics.

1948: Yugoslavia breaks from Soviet Bloc.

1974: Constitution increases powers of the republics.

1980: Tito dies and country is ruled by collective presidency.

1988-89: Serbian nationalism sparks separatist movements in Croatia and Slovenia. Troops quell demonstrations by ethnic Albanians in autonomous province of Kosovo.

1990: Non-Communists win first free multi-party elections in Croatia and Slovenia.

June 25, 1991: Croatia and Slovenia declare their independence from Yugoslavia.

Sources: Los Angeles Times, Associated Press