Yugoslavia Acts to Defuse Threat of Ethnic Warfare

Parliament today moved to defuse mounting ethnic and political tension and warnings of impending civil war by naming a Croatian reformer to the country’s collective presidency.

A crucial parliamentary debate on whether Yugoslavia remains a federation or becomes a looser alliance was then postponed until at least November.

The two moves indicated that the country’s quarreling political leaders have decided to put off, at least for now, a showdown in their power struggle over Yugoslavia’s future.

Deputies loudly applauded a conciliatory speech by outgoing President Borisav Jovic, a Serb who holds the annually rotating chairmanship of the collective ruling body.

“All bridges have not been burned. There are still possibilities for the crisis to be overcome,” Jovic said after Stjepan Mesic, a Croatian, was named to the presidency.

Communist-ruled Serbia staunchly opposes the confederacy plan pushed by Slovenia and Croatia.

Under it, Yugoslavia would become a loose alliance of sovereign states. There would be no central rule or national capital, and each state would decide how it would deal with each other on an individual basis.

Serbia calls for a “modern federation” that would keep central rule in Belgrade, the capital of the country and Serbia.

Deputies from Serbia--the largest republic and Croatia’s traditional rival--had earlier blocked the election of Mesic, charging that he is a Croatian nationalist who seeks independence for his republic.