Slovenians Reject List of Demands : Yugoslavia: An uneasy truce is observed despite the breakaway republic’s refusal to demobilize its troops.

LJUBLJANA, Slovenia —  The Yugoslav presidency Thursday ordered Slovenia to demobilize its militia units, dismantle all roadblocks and hand over border controls to the federal government in an effort to firm up a shaky cease-fire.

But a senior Slovenian official immediately rejected the demands as “unfeasible and impossible to implement,” sharpening the conflict between the secessionist republic and the Yugoslav army and raising the prospect of renewed fighting.

The third attempt in less than a week to observe a cease-fire in Slovenia appeared to be holding Thursday, as weary troops of the Yugoslav People’s Army retreated to their barracks and their tanks were hauled away by the Slovenes on flatbed trucks.

A powerful fighting force dispatched by Belgrade on Wednesday halted far short of the Slovenian border, allowing both sides to step back from the brink of what many feared would be a catastrophic battle with thousands of casualties.

Tensions eased visibly throughout the breakaway republic, although the capital remained heavily barricaded and Ljubljana’s Brnik Airport was still closed.

No new outbreaks of violence were reported for the first time in a week.

“I am pleased to say that there is no fighting anywhere in Slovenia,” Information Minister Jelko Kacin told reporters. But he added that “The war is not over . . . . We have no guarantees that the other side will not attack again.”

Slovenian territorial defense forces and Yugoslav army recruits have battled fiercely for control of the republic that declared independence from the federation on June 25.

Kacin said Slovenian leaders and representatives of the army bargained until 3 a.m. to hammer out terms of a cease-fire.

Two other accords brokered by European delegations fell apart within hours of their announcement last weekend, and the deal agreed to early Thursday also appeared fragile.

A statement from the 5th Army District in Zagreb accused Slovenia’s reservists of hampering its movements and attacking a supply airlift a day earlier. It was also unclear whether the 5th District, which includes Slovenia, was in complete accord with the high command in Belgrade.

The statement warned that unless Slovenia adheres to all agreed peace measures, the army might attack again.

“This practically means a real possibility of this time opening a war operation of very serious dimensions,” the army stated.

In Belgrade, the federal and Serbian capital, Prime Minister Ante Markovic made his first public appearance since last weekend, dispelling rumors that he had been deposed and arrested as part of a military coup d’etat.

But Markovic confirmed that the federal army is acting outside government control, fueling fears that the 180,000-strong fighting force is under the command of renegade Serbian generals.

The army’s hard-line Communist chief of staff, Gen. Blagoje Adzic, issued a menacing statement against Slovenia on Tuesday, threatening to crush its independence drive with “a massive and rigorous military strike.”

Markovic said the army had no federal authority backing its deployment Wednesday of a massive column of 180 tanks and armored units to Croatia and the republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Markovic also denied that he had ordered the army to use force to prevent Slovenia from seceding by seizing control of its international borders.

“The federal government never ordered, nor could order, any army action in the way it was done,” the prime minister said.

Uncertainty over who directs the army and what the military intends with the huge deployment has made Slovenia reluctant to withdraw the 40,000 territorial reservists manning roadblocks throughout the republic.

“We are witnessing an attempt to create the illusion that someone is controlling the army when in fact the army is not under control,” said Kacin, the information minister.

The federal presidency, which was resurrected Sunday after being paralyzed for six weeks by a Serbian blockade, met Thursday and issued a list of demands it said were necessary to alleviate the “complex and tense” situation in Slovenia.

It said Yugoslav borders must be re-established by Sunday night, that all federal troops must be allowed to retreat to their bases unimpeded, that captured soldiers and weapons must be returned to the army and that free use of public roads and airspace must be restored.

Slovenian reservists also must “withdraw to their original positions as kept in peacetime,” said the presidential session that met in Belgrade.

The orders were rebuffed by the Ljubljana leadership, which has said that rolling back on independence is now impossible after last week’s army invasion of the republic and the threat by Adzic to quash Slovenian secession at any cost.

“The only possible response to an ultimatum is an ultimatum,” Slovenian President Milan Kucan told republic television after the Belgrade orders were received.

The presidential directive is “unfeasible and impossible to implement,” Kacin said.

The Slovenian delegate to the embattled federal presidency, Janez Drnovsek, did not take part in the body’s deliberations, which resulted in a voting advantage for Serbian delegates, who fill four of the eight positions. There was no indication in the Tanjug news agency report on the presidency meeting of how the seven members cast their votes.

Ljubljana officials have effectively boycotted the presidency since it was revived Sunday with the election of Croatia’s Stipe Mesic as its chief. One of Slovenia’s reasons for unilaterally declaring independence was that the federal organs of power were either not functioning or under the control of Serbian Communists.

With Slovenes defiantly sticking to their declared independence and the army fully mobilized for a massive strike, there appeared to be a strong likelihood of further violence once the Sunday deadline for fulfilling the presidential order has passed.

Since fighting broke out a week ago with a ground and aerial assault by the Yugoslav military, at least 49 people have been killed and 300 wounded, according to the Slovenian Red Cross. There have been contradictory reports on casualties, with some officials saying the death toll reached 100.

Neighboring Croatia also declared its independence last week. Clashes between Croats and the ethnic Serbian minority in Croatia have escalated since the declaration, raising the two-month death toll to more than 40.

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