Serbia Backs Down, Agrees to Join Talks : Yugoslavia: The move by the renegade republic restores the quorum of the presidency.

The renegade republic of Serbia backed down Wednesday from its campaign to paralyze the Yugoslav presidency by restoring its quorum and agreeing to take part in an emergency meeting.

While Serbia’s moves bring the leadership crisis full circle after two weeks of chaos, the republic’s presidential delegate leveled a harsh attack on the federal prime minister and his market reforms, indicating that Yugoslavia’s political turmoil is far from over.

The Communist-dominated Serbian Parliament rejected the resignation of the Serbian delegate to the collective presidency, Borisav Jovic, who had resigned as Yugoslav head of state last Friday after failing to win a presidential order for martial law. He accepted the rejection, in effect withdrawing his resignation.

Jovic and other Serbian hard-liners had sought to impose a state of emergency throughout Yugoslavia to quell anti-Communist unrest in Serbia and disarm “illegal paramilitary units” in the secession-bound republics of Croatia and Slovenia.

Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic had intensified the leadership crisis by forcing out three other members of the eight-man presidency and declaring that Serbia would no longer recognize the ruling body’s authority.

In what was obviously intended as a face-saving maneuver, Communist delegates in the Serbian Parliament praised Jovic for taking a courageous stand against the rival republics and rejected his resignation.

Jovic also indicated that he and Milosevic will take part in a crisis session of the embattled collective presidency and the leaders of the six Yugoslav republics to be held today in Belgrade.

While the Serbian leadership’s Byzantine maneuvering has restored the authority of the presidential body it sought to destroy, republic officials have yet to climb down from Milosevic’s statement Saturday that Serbia would no longer heed orders or decisions from the presidency. Among the considerable powers of the ruling collective is its command of the armed forces.

The orchestrated backtracking on Jovic’s resignation also served to delay a parliamentary vote on another tendered resignation. Serbian Interior Minister Radmilo Bogdanovic offered to step down after student demonstrators accused him of ordering a violent crackdown on anti-Communists protesting the Milosevic regime on March 9.

The harsh police response to the peaceful opposition rally triggered five days of unrest in Belgrade in which two people were killed and more than 100 were injured.

Students and opposition forces, led by Vuk Draskovic of the Serbian Renewal Movement, have vowed to create further unrest if Bogdanovic is not removed.

Draskovic has called for the entire Communist government to step down and allow new elections in Serbia later this year.

Milosevic and his renamed--although unreformed--Communists won a landslide victory only three months ago, primarily because they control the mass media and financial organs. Raises and bonuses doled out to workers before the election violated federal austerity measures, worsening the economic crisis that is feeding broader unrest.

The agreement by Milosevic to take part in today’s presidential talks represents a step forward in that negotiations on Yugoslavia’s future can at least resume.

However, Milosevic and his Communist allies have shown little to indicate they are ready for compromise on independence for the northern republics of Slovenia and Croatia.