Ante Markovic, who as the last prime minister of Yugoslavia tried to stave off the ethnic warfare that led to the disintegration of that nation, died on Nov. 28 in Zagreb, the Croatian capital. He was 87.

Croatia’s state news agency, HINA, reported the death.

Mr. Markovic, a Croat born in what is now Bosnia and Herzegovina, was named prime minister in January 1989, two years before his formerly Communist country fell apart. Despite ancient ethnic rivalries, Yugoslavia had been held together during the 35-year regime of Marshal Josip Broz Tito as perhaps the most open of the totalitarian Eastern European states. Mr. Markovic’s predecessor, Branko Mikulic, made early attempts at liberalization, but resigned in December 1988 when the Yugoslav Parliament rejected his economic reforms. On Jan. 19, 1989, the collective presidency — representing Yugoslavia’s six republics and two autonomous provinces — chose Mr. Markovic as prime minister....