More than 100,000 join opposition protest in Belgrade

April 14, 2000
Web posted at: 9:37 p.m. EDT (0137 GMT)

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BELGRADE, Yugoslavia--In the biggest opposition rally since August, more than 100,000 people packed central Belgrade on Friday to demand democratic elections and the removal of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic from office.

The demonstration was the first time in three years that all of the main opposition leaders appeared on stage together.

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But as they greeted the crowd it appeared that Vuk Draskovic and Zoran Djindjic, the rival leaders of the two main opposition parties, still held grudges toward each other. The two men barely looked at each other and only exchanged a quick handshake at the beginning of the rally.

Milosevic's Communist allies warned Friday the protest was aimed at destabilizing Serbia, the dominant Yugoslav republic. The state-run Tanjug news agency quoted a party in the ruling coalition as saying the opposition rally was an unpatriotic attempt organized by "pro-American stooges ... to crush the country's unity."

Serbia is internationally isolated and impoverished a year after NATO bombed the country to stop Milosevic's repression of ethnic Albanians in the southern Yugoslav province of Kosovo.

The only protests in Yugoslavia to have any effect went on for months in 1996-97. Those demonstrations forced Milosevic to acknowledge opposition victories in local elections, but he remained in power.

Belgrade has seen a series of street protests during Milosevic's decade-long rule, during which former republics have left the Yugoslav federation and hundreds of thousands of people have been killed or driven from their homes.

Much of the energy from the 1996-97 protests is now gone, and the attitude of many at Friday's protests reflected the different mood. Some of the demonstrators at Friday's rally doubted the sincerity of the display of unity by protest leaders.

"I'm very skeptical speaking about unity of the opposition," said one protester. "We have a long experience of disunity in this country, but the deciding element is the people."

"I believe that the most important thing is that we the people, we the citizens that came out here today stay united ... rather than the leaders of the two parties," said another protester.

The division within the opposition is seen by observers as one reason why they have not been able to remove Milosevic from power.

This time the opposition has opted for a joint strategy -- calling for early elections at all levels.

Djindjic challenged the crowd. "Are we ready enough? Decisive enough and united enough to bring changes? The answer is millions of you who are humiliated, who are with no money, join us and we will be strong and united enough."

Yugoslav government officials have been cracking down on free media, opposition leaders and their supporters since NATO launched a 78-day air war against the country last year. Despite the country's overall economic and social decline, Milosevic has ignored opposition demands for early elections.

Draskovic blamed the government for the economic and political isolation of the country, and charged the Milosevic regime with making the life of its citizens unbearable.

"They are killing us, they are beating us, they are arresting us ... because we live in misery, humiliated, because 50 percent of the citizens of Serbia are unemployed," he said.

But despite the economic problems facing the country, Yugoslav officials have, so far, ignored opposition calls for early elections.

Government officials say the elections will be held, as scheduled, later this year. Observers say the challenge for the opposition will be to remain united until then.

Years of antagonism between Milosevic and the West culminated in 11 weeks of NATO bombing last year over the treatment of ethnic Albanians in the Yugoslav province of Kosovo. The war left Milosevic indicted for war crimes and his country more broken and isolated than ever.

In Switzerland Friday, the top U.N. war crimes prosecutor said Milosevic must not be allowed to continue evading international justice and that his arrest is a priority. In a speech at the University of Fribourg, Carla del Ponte also said she will press NATO-led forces in Bosnia to arrest former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic because "it will be impossible for a lasting peace to be achieved in Bosnia-Herzegovina" unless he is tried.

Correspondent Alessio Vinci The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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