Peace Plan for Yugoslavia Is Put in Jeopardy

A peace plan allowing full independence for Slovenia within three months restored calm to the tiny alpine republic Monday but appeared in jeopardy when the federal presidency refused to endorse it.

The fragile accord seemed destined to go the way of two other failed attempts at mediating the crisis that has pitted Slovenia and its 2 million people against an angry and mobilized Yugoslav army.

A European Community delegation on the Adriatic island of Brioni hammered out an agreement among the breakaway republics of Slovenia and Croatia and the Yugoslav government of Prime Minister Ante Markovic, allowing the combatants to pause for breath after two weeks of deadly fighting.

Most roads were reopened Monday in Slovenia, the last of 2,400 federal soldiers captured during battles last week were freed from the republic and officials in this federal and Serbian capital seemed to grudgingly accept that breakaway Slovenia will eventually leave the federation.

But the outlook for the rest of Yugoslavia was all the more forbidding, and the embattled accord offered little hope of averting a devastating clash that looms between Serbia and Croatia.

The collective federal presidency, meeting in Belgrade early today, accused Slovenia of violating the Brioni accord and refused to endorse it.

The presidency’s rejection of the European Community peace plan raised disturbing questions about the army’s influence on the body that allegedly commands it.

Federal Defense Minister Veljko Kadijevic took part in the meeting of the presidency in Belgrade, the Yugoslav news agency Tanjug said, heightening concern that the leadership was acting to promote Serbian and military interests.

The Slovenian delegate, Janez Drnovsek, boycotted the meeting, adhering to his republic’s position that it is no longer part of the Yugoslav federation. Slovenia has also pulled its members out of the federal Parliament.

In addition, the presidency’s Croatian chief, Stipe Mesic, was said to be ill, according to Tanjug. That gave Serbian delegates on the presidency a clear majority.

The army’s role in the volatile Yugoslav conflict remains uncertain. Thousands of federal troops who have deployed to ethnic flash-points remain battle-ready and apparently out of federal government control.

Despite a cease-fire that has held for five days, the army has persistently accused Slovenia of broad violations and issued threats to unleash another military strike if it fails to back off from its declared independence.

In a presidential statement on the Brioni peace plan carried by Tanjug early today, the army’s complaints were reiterated that Slovenia continues to barricade barracks and hold prisoners of war. This contradicted a Monday announcement from the army leadership itself that all those captured during last week’s fighting had been released.

The army might have been pressing for further signs of Slovenia’s commitment to the three-month suspension of its sovereignty, in addition to the specific measures covered in the Brioni accord.

The Brioni agreement puts no pressure on Slovenia to rejoin the federal organs of power with which it has severed ties.

But the army and Serbia apparently want further concessions on the issue of sovereignty in return for their support for the peace plan.

Slovenia’s capital, Ljubljana, appeared calm Monday, but a new outbreak of violence in neighboring Croatia was reported by Tanjug. The dispatch said federal troops guarding a bridge over the Danube River between Serbia and Croatia were fired upon from the Croatian side, with an unknown number of casualties.

It was not clear whether the shots were fired by Croatians or by Serbian rebels who have moved into the ethnically mixed territory.

Serbia, the largest of Yugoslavia’s republics, holds many of the cards that will determine whether the EC peace plan succeeds, yet it has already distanced itself from the effort.

Serbia’s representative on the federal presidency held a rare meeting with reporters here Monday to contend that the Brioni agreement is only “preliminary.”

“Resolution of the crisis depends on resolution of the relations between Croatia and Serbia,” Borisav Jovic, a hard-line Communist, said at the press conference.

“The situation in Yugoslavia could lead to war, and that should be understood by everyone here and in Europe,” Jovic said.

Serbia was opposed to the very idea of allowing European diplomats to broker the cease-fire. The agreement also provides for international monitoring of compliance, which Serbia regards as unwarranted interference in Yugoslav affairs.

Jovic, who is closely aligned with Serbia’s nationalist strongman, President Slobodan Milosevic, repeated the president’s Saturday warning that Serbia will move militarily to prevent separation from Croatia’s 600,000 ethnic Serbs in the event of secession.

In a move heavy with symbolism, Milosevic paid a visit to the province of Vojvodina to review Serbian recruits of the territorial armed forces. Belgrade television showed him walking among masses of uniformed soldiers--a message to rival Croatia that Serbs are ready to fight, if necessary, to liberate Serbian regions.

Under the peace plan drafted by the EC, Serbia must negotiate with the republics in good faith if another clash over Yugoslav borders is to be avoided. The Brioni agreement set an Aug. 1 deadline for new talks to begin on all aspects of Yugoslavia’s future.

Serbia also wields much influence with the Yugoslav People’s Army, since about 70% of the officers corps is Serbian and loyal to the Communist doctrine that has been abandoned by most other republics.

Croatian President Franjo Tudjman appeared on television late Monday to say he basically accepts the peace agreement, but he made clear that he remains committed to Croatian independence and said that “we will defend ourselves if attacked.”

Under terms of the peace plan, Slovenian reservists and federal troops in the republic were to return to their barracks. But the agreement made no mention of the 180-vehicle armored convoy deployed Wednesday to Serbia’s western border and into ethnically sensitive areas of Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Slovenia won major concessions from the federal leadership, including physical control of its border crossings into Italy, Austria and Hungary.

The border posts had become a symbol of authority over republic affairs. Under the agreement they will be manned by Slovenes, although customs duties collected there must be passed on to Belgrade.

Slovenia agreed to suspend further moves toward independence for three months, effectively winning federal and foreign approval for secession after the cooling-off period.

Some Slovenian politicians accused President Milan Kucan of selling out on the issue of sovereignty, and a bitter debate raged all day in the republic’s Parliament in Ljubljana.

Western diplomats were cautious, describing the Brioni agreement as little more than a breathing space in the complex crisis.

“We are absolutely certain that the departure of the Slovenes will create violence for the 22 million people left in Yugoslavia,” one senior envoy said.

In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Margaret Tutwiler announced that the United States, following the lead of the European Community, has banned the sale of weapons to the Yugoslav federal government and to the rebellious republics of Croatia and Slovenia.

Times staff writer Norman Kempster in Washington contributed to this story.