Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, March 16, 1991                   TAG: 9103160338
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: BELGRADE, YUGOSLAVIA                                LENGTH: Medium

YUGOSLAVIAN LEADER RESIGNS/ SERBIAN WANTS EMERGENCY DECREE, SAYS CIVIL WAR

"I am not ready to go along with decisions that are leading to the break up of the country, with possible catastrophic consequences for its people," said Borisav Jovic.

Premier Ante Markovic's federal government, meeting into the early hours today, said "peaceful, tolerant and democratic ways of solving the crisis will avert the danger of clashes and civil war."

Markovic's government, which makes day-to-day decisions in the country, opposes efforts that Jovic supported to give the army a greater role in mediating unrest inside Serbia, the biggest and most populous of Yugoslavia's six republics, and between that republic and others.

Jovic, a Serbian who headed the eight-member presidency since last May, had joined with army officials to seek a state of emergency that would expand the military's powers to intervene. They claimed the order was necessary to restore order amid mounting political and social unrest in the multiethnic nation.

The latest disturbances occurred over the past week in Serbia, the largest republic. Serbia's Socialist president, Slobodan Milosevic, is a close ally of Jovic.

The presidency includes a representative from each of Yugoslavia's six republics and its two autonomous provinces. According to one account, five of the eight representatives, led by those of Slovenia and Croatia, opposed a state of emergency, saying Serbia's Socialist leaders wanted it simply to stay in power.

The Tanjug news agency said members of the presidency were summoned late Friday for a meeting in Belgrade to discuss Jovic's announcement.