Yugoslav Foes Seem Not to Want Peace : Balkans: Serbia, largest of the republics, snubs attempts to defuse the crisis. Thus, the time bomb keeps ticking.

As Yugoslavia’s rival republics seemed intent on scuttling the latest peace plan Tuesday, the likelihood of an all-out Balkan war escalated along with European neighbors’ frustrations over how to prevent it.

The combatants in Yugoslavia have persistently sought to take advantage of foreign mediation. A battle over interpretation has followed each of three declared truces, leading to their failure and adding to the grievances each republic has stockpiled against the others.

That has driven tension to the danger point and posed the question of whether the Yugoslav protagonists really want peace.

After 10 days of failed diplomacy, many now fear the answer is that they don’t.

The first delegation of European Community observers arrived in Yugoslavia on Tuesday to work out a means of monitoring the precarious cease-fire that has held in Slovenia for nearly a week.

But even as the Western Europeans sought to intervene, new outbreaks of ethnic violence were reported in Croatia.

Slovenia and the federal presidency, which accuse each other of violating the peace plan, have yet to endorse the latest truce worked out by EC diplomats Sunday on the Adriatic island of Brioni.

The deeply divided Slovenian Parliament put off debate on the plan until today, prompting the collective presidency in Belgrade to do the same.

Slovenia is considered likely to ratify the agreement, as rejection would strain relations with the 12-nation European Community, which it hopes to join once independent. But some radical members of the republic leadership have condemned the plan’s call for a three-month moratorium on secession as tantamount to Slovenia’s “surrender.”

“The declaration is not ideal but represents a compromise which prevents war,” Slovenian President Milan Kucan told reporters.

Information Minister Jelko Kacin accused the federal army of beefing up its troops in the republic but said Slovenia will demobilize its reservists within two days.

In an overnight session marked by mysterious absences, the presidency early Tuesday accused Slovenia of ignoring the leadership’s edicts in failing to immediately withdraw its territorial defense forces to peacetime positions. It also said that barricades thrown up throughout the republic last week--to block a threatened ground assault by the federal army--continued to hamper the withdrawal of federal troops.

The presidency suggested that it would not agree to the EC peace plan without further concessions from Slovenia, including its participation in future meetings of the federal presidency and Parliament.

Slovenia’s presidential delegate, Janez Drnovsek, boycotted the Monday night session, and the head of the federal presidency, Stipe Mesic of Croatia, was also absent and reported to be ill.

But in view of the critical business before the presidency, it seemed unlikely that its chairman would skip it on grounds of health. More likely, Mesic has been seeking to distance himself from decisions that appear to serve Serbian and military interests over those of his own republic. Since Serbia controls four votes on the eight-member presidency, and a fifth member, Bosnia’s Bogic Bogicevic, is also a Serb, the largest republic enjoys a virtual lock on the body that commands the military.

The Serbian-dominated high command has already deployed federal troops without presidential authorization.

Two members of the federal presidency traveled to Slovenia on Tuesday to determine whether Ljubljana officials have been acting in good faith to resolve their continuing standoff with the army.

Serbia, the largest of Yugoslavia’s six republics, has snubbed attempts by European political leaders to defuse the explosive conflict that sits like a time bomb on Europe’s southern frontier.

Without compliance by Serbia, which strongly influences the Yugoslav People’s Army and other federal organs, no efforts to avert violence are likely to succeed.

Both Serbia and Croatia have amassed huge territorial armed forces in preparation for a long-threatened clash.

Serbian leaders in the ethnically mixed region of Banja Luka, in Bosnia-Herzegovina, called Tuesday for mobilization of local reservists in response to what they described as an “emergency situation.” Banja Luka is a predominantly Serbian region of Bosnia, neighboring the Knin area of Croatia, also largely populated by Serbs.

The two territories have declared themselves autonomous of their respective republic leaderships and banded together to form a Serbian flank between Croatia and Muslim-inhabited areas of Bosnia.

Croatia has given grudging endorsement to the European peace plan. But the Zagreb leadership has repeated demands that the federal army withdraw from Croatia’s ethnic trouble spots and accused the federal troops of being engaged in a creeping occupation of the Croatian republic.

Serbia has resisted foreign involvement in talks aimed at settling Yugoslavia’s problems.

Clashes between Serbs and Croats have taken 90 lives in the republic over the past three months, the mayor of one ethnic flash point, Osijek, told reporters in northeastern Croatia.

Zlatko Kramaric also said 34 people, primarily Serbs, are in custody in local jails on suspicion of having instigated the violence.

New outbreaks of fighting have flared in recent days, including a Monday night clash on a bridge joining Serbia to Croatia and early Tuesday in the nearby village of Borovo Selo.

A statement by the federal army blamed local Croatian reservists for the fighting at the bridge in Ilok, about 60 miles west of Belgrade, while the Croatian forces claim that they were fired upon by unknown assailants.

Sticking Points in Yugoslavia

PEACE PLAN TERMS: Slovenia accused the federal army of beefing up its troops in the republic but said it will demobilize its own reservists within two days. The federal presidency accused Slovenia of failing to immediately withdraw its defense forces and hampering the withdrawal of federal troops with barricades.

SPENDING: Slovenia and Croatia contribute nearly half of the federal budget while representing less than a third of Yugoslavia’s 24 million population. They want more control over government spending, which is currently dictated by Belgrade.

REPRESENTATION: Under the 1974 Yugoslav constitution, Serbia effectively enjoys triple representation on the federal presidency. The other five republics have one delegate each. Serbia has its own plus one each from its now-subjugated but previously autonomous provinces of Kosovo and Vojvodina. Slovenia and Croatia want Serbia’s political clout reduced to the same level as theirs.

ARMY: Both breakaway republics want cutbacks in the 180,000-man Yugoslav People’s Army as well as in the system of privilege accorded to the mainly Serbian and Communist officers corps. About two-thirds of the federal budget is currently spent on defense.

SOVEREIGNTY: Slovenia and Croatia seek to eventually issue their own passports, deploy their own diplomats, introduce their own currencies and collect their own customs fees. The federal government has so far refused to transfer those functions.