Yugoslavia Buys a Little More Time : Ethnic strife: A thread of hope is preserved for the federation as a vote of no-confidence in the prime minister is beaten down.

The enemy of your enemy may be your friend in most countries, but in Yugoslavia even animosity defies convention.

Serbia on Tuesday tried to push through the federal Parliament a vote of no-confidence in Prime Minister Ante Markovic, whose efforts at preserving Yugoslavia as a united federation are opposed with equal fervor by both Communist and non-Communist republics.

While resentment of Markovic is one of the few political subjects on which the feuding republics see eye to eye, the move to oust him failed when deputies from regions struggling against Serbian aggression refused to join sides with their adversaries.

Representatives from Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and the predominantly Albanian province of Kosovo found themselves in the unusual position of defending Markovic against the Serbian-led onslaught.

About two-thirds of the deputies present in the Chamber of Republics and Provinces voted against the no-confidence motion raised by Serbia’s subjugated province of Vojvodina.

Markovic and his reform policies may be widely ignored by nationalist leaders of the republics, but he is the only surviving voice of federal authority now that the presidency has been paralyzed by a Serbian blockade.

Failure of the no-confidence vote was far from a victory for Markovic, but it bought some time for maneuvering and preserved a thread of hope that the embattled prime minister might eventually rally support to save Yugoslavia.

The federation now suffers a leadership vacuum because Serbia has thwarted the inauguration of Croatia’s Stipe Mesic as president, leaving the country without a head of state and commander of the armed forces for the last two weeks.

Despite the protracted crisis, life goes on in what passes for normal in each republic, suggesting that a new, looser confederal arrangement has already set in.

Negotiations to decide Yugoslavia’s future have been indefinitely postponed while there is no presidency, and the threat of open warfare hangs oppressively over the deeply divided country.

But Yugoslavia’s perseverance through mounting political and social crises has boosted confidence among moderates that some peaceful resolution may emerge from the current confusion.

“We don’t use the word federation anymore,” said Vesna Pesic, a Belgrade sociologist and political activist with the pro-unity coalition formed by Markovic last year. “There’s no other way but to sit down and completely reconstruct Yugoslavia and our economy, which has been destroyed during all this quarreling.”

The small but vocal forces supporting continued alliance of Yugoslavia’s six republics and two once-autonomous provinces have pinned their last and best hopes on Markovic to pull the rebellious states back together.

He announced formation of an emergency coordinating commission to fulfill the leadership tasks of the blocked presidency and has marshaled support from international financial institutions and Western governments for his efforts to preserve the disintegrating federation.

Markovic has been fighting against a Slovenian date with independence set for June 26. The most prosperous and Western-oriented republic, Slovenia’s non-Communist leadership won nearly 90% support for secession in a referendum held in December.

Croatia, Yugoslavia’s second-largest republic, has vowed to follow Slovenia out of the 72-year-old federation unless the costs of maintaining it are greatly reduced.

By showing even grudging support for Markovic, the non-Communist republics have demonstrated a desire to search for a way out of the stalemate and avoid civil war.

“We couldn’t stand another crisis--we’re too exhausted,” said Pesic, who like others in the thin ranks of moderate Serbian intellectuals believes her countrymen will eventually shake off the current stupor of rabid nationalism.

They see encouragement in recent U.S. moves to isolate Serbia for its human rights abuses while warning the western republics that if they secede, they will be economically and politically ostracized by the West.

“Serbia’s move to block the Yugoslav presidency has horrified Western nations,” U.S. Ambassador Warren Zimmermann said Monday.

He said the State Department blames the Serbian leadership of Communist President Slobodan Milosevic for the federal crisis, which he described as a deliberate attempt to “raise the odds of disintegration and violence.”

Markovic has been lobbying for months for the republics to adhere to a federal recovery program that is the only chance for securing a $1-billion standby credit from the International Monetary Fund.

Without that loan and another $3.5 billion in financing contingent on IMF approval, Yugoslavia’s economy will collapse.

The federation has been pushed to the brink of bankruptcy by the six republics’ refusal to abide by terms of Markovic’s program.

Such painful consequences of the political standoff may have helped Markovic sell a previously unacceptable survival plan to the reluctant republics.

The prime minister met with republic leaders on Monday and won surprising endorsement for keeping the federation afloat.

According to a report on the meeting issued by the Tanjug news agency, all six republic prime ministers agreed to end an internal trade war that has subverted economic reform.