Within weeks of a declaration of sovereignty by the Yugoslav Republic of Croatia, leaders of the republic's Serbian minority are pressing for cultural and, in all likelihood, territorial autonomy that would further complicate an already intricate political map and could exacerbate already bitter ethnic rivalries.
Croatia's declaration last month followed the resounding electoral victory in May of the Croatian Democratic Union, which ran on a promise to secure the republic's independence.
Croatia's new President, Franjo Tudjman, has pledged to guarantee the individual and cultural rights of all people living in Croatia, including its Serbian minority.
But many of the republic's Serbs see in the union's ascendancy portents of extreme nationalism that recall anti-Serb atrocities of the fascist Ustashi movement, which ran an Axis-sponsored Croatian state in World War II. Croatia's new leaders scoff at any comparisons between their party and the Ustashi.
''We want to secure the national autonomy of our people,'' said Jovan Raskovic, president of the Serbian Democratic Party, in a telephone interview. ''We'll receive a limited democratic and cultural freedom in the new Croatia, and we won't accept such limits.''
Serbs Call for Referendum
Mr. Raskovic said his party would conduct a referendum among Croatia's Serbs on the autonomy question beginning Aug. 19. The Croatian Government has banned the referendum in the republic's six counties with predominantly Serb populations, which are clustered near their Bosnian border. The republic has 530,000 Serbs, about 12 percent of its population.
''There is no constitutional basis for such a referendum,'' said Daniel Bucan, a Croatian Government spokesman, in a telephone interview from Zagreb today. ''The results will not have any legal basis.''
Nevertheless, insisted Mr. Raskovic, ''we'll still carry it out despite their decision because we consider it our democratic right to do so.''
Mr. Raskovic said that if Croatia opted to stay within a Yugoslav federation, which is highly unlikely, his party would settle for cultural autonomy for the republic's Serbs. Such autonomy would allow for the creation of Serb public schools and official use of their Cyrillic alphabet.
If, however, Croatia chooses to secede, Mr. Raskovic said his party would either push for territorial autonomy for the Serb-populated counties or hold a referendum to decide whether the Serb-populated counties would opt out of Croatia altogether.
At Odds on Autonomy
''If the Croatian people want their own state, then the Serbs will decide their own fate,'' Mr. Raskovic said.
''We have no problem with Serbian cultural autonomy, but the Croatian Government absolutely cannot accept political and territorial autonomy,'' Mr. Bucan said. ''It is eveident that they want to form a Serbian state within the borders of the Croatian state. This is completely unacceptable.''
Serbs have lived on what is traditionally regarded as Croatian soil for centuries. Many migrated there after the Ottoman Turks conquered medieval Serbia in the 14th century.
