[ALBSA-Info] Schroeder, Putin Agree Serbs Voted for Change/Albright Says `Milosevic Must Go'/Yugoslav Opposition Vows to Paralyse Serbia/Serbian Police Seal off Striking Coal Pit

[Gazhebo at aol.com]

1. Schroeder, Putin Agree Serbs Voted for Change
2. Albright Says `Milosevic Must Go'
3. Yugoslav Opposition Vows to Paralyse Serbia
4. Serbian Police Seal off Striking Coal Pit


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#1.
Schroeder, Putin Agree Serbs Voted for Change

By Douglas Busvine

BERLIN, Oct 1 (Reuters) - The leaders of Germany and Russia have agreed that 
the victory of opposition candidate Vojislav Kostunica in Yugoslavia's 
presidential election reflects the will of the Serbian people for democratic 
change, the German government said on Sunday. 

Government spokeswoman Charima Reinhardt said Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder 
and President Vladimir Putin agreed the common position in a telephone call 
on Saturday, which followed Schroeder's visit to Moscow last Monday. 

``They agreed that, in the election victory of Vojislav Kostunica, the will 
of the Serbian people for a democratic change in Yugoslavia had been clearly 
expressed,'' government spokeswoman Charima Reinhardt said in a statement. 

Significantly, the statement went further than Schroeder's comments after he 
met Putin in Moscow, where he said that Serbia had voted for change but made 
no explicit mention of a victory by Kostunica. 

Putin said then that he agreed with Schroeder's remarks. 

Schroeder's conversation with Putin appeared to mark a further step towards 
bringing Russia, Serbia's traditional ally, behind Western efforts to bring 
about a peaceful change of government in Belgrade after a decade of war and 
turmoil in the Balkans. 

``This is remarkable, and it is an important signal to the leaders around 
Milosevic that they cannot count on the support of Russia,'' one senior 
Western diplomat said. 

COMMON POSITION 

The Western powers appeared to be pressing ahead with efforts to build a 
common position with Moscow, and overcome the mistrust still lingering after 
NATO's air campaign drove Milosevic's forces out of Kosovo last year. 

But it may be too much to expect Moscow to come out openly and call for 
Milosevic to stand down. 

Though Germany has endorsed the common Western view that Kostunica won an 
absolute majority in last Sunday's first round, Berlin's statement on Sunday, 
bearing Moscow's blessing, was not so categorical. Russia is not prepared to 
go so far in public. 

``The Russian side has much further to go. So there will have to be a 
step-by-step approach,'' the diplomat said. 

The six countries of the so-called Contact Group -- the United States, 
Russia, Britain, France, Germany and Italy -- were expected to hold talks in 
Paris on Monday night to discuss their next steps on Yugoslavia. 

But scheduling problems meant that Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, who 
is due to accompany Putin on a trip to India, would not be able to attend and 
no full ministerial meeting has been scheduled yet. 

RUSSIANS IN BELGRADE 

Meanwhile, a pair of Russian diplomats arrived in Belgrade on Sunday for 
talks, but western expectations of results were low after Milosevic refused 
to receive Ivanov. 

The German statement said that Schroeder and Putin had discussed how the 
international community could help ensure that a change of government could 
be ``realised in a peaceful way.'' 

``They warned against any steps that could lead to violence,'' the statement 
emphasised, adding that the two leaders would stay in close contact on develop
ments in Yugoslavia. 

The supporters of Kostunica say he won an outright majority over Milosevic, 
but official results put him just short of the minimum 50 percent required. 

Kostunica has vowed to boycott a run-off vote called for October 8 and his 
supporters have mounted a campaign of protests and civil disobedience to 
loosen Milosevic's grip on power. 


#2.
Albright Says `Milosevic Must Go'

By PAULINE JELINEK


WASHINGTON (AP) - Secretary of State Madeleine Albright says Yugoslavia's 
embattled president, Slobodan Milosevic, should step aside and let the 
political opposition begin rebuilding the war-ravaged nation. 

``Milosevic must go,'' Albright said in a Newsweek essay released Sunday. 
``The opposition should be allowed to get on with the many jobs it has been 
elected to do: restoring democracy, reviving the economy, rooting out 
corruption and bringing Serbia back into the European family of nations.'' 

Milosevic was facing a showdown Monday as opposition forces planned what they 
hoped would be nationwide work stoppages and blockades to force him to accept 
defeat by challenger Vojislav Kostunica in the Sept. 24 election. 

The opposition claims Kostunica won outright, but the government insists he 
failed to take enough votes to avoid a runoff next weekend. The Federal 
Electoral Commission on Saturday formally rejected all opposition challenges 
of alleged vote irregularities. 

Asserting that ``Milosevic's machine'' is falling apart, Albright wrote that 
``the sooner Milosevic leaves, the better it will be, and the quicker the 
process of recovery can be.'' 

On ABC's ``This Week,'' retired Gen. Wesley Clark, a former NATO commander, 
said, ``Monday and Tuesday will be key moments'' in deciding what happens in 
Yugoslavia. 

``It's up to the people of Serbia whether they are going to stand for this or 
not,'' said Clark, who led NATO's war against Milosevic in 1999. 

National Security Council spokesman P.J. Crowley said it appears ``the 
opposition is getting stronger, gaining even greater support from the Serbian 
people.'' 

``They are sending a strong message to Milosevic: `Your time in office is 
over,''' he said Sunday. 

On Saturday, President Clinton and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed in 
a telephone conversation that ``it is important for Milosevic to accept the 
will of the Serbian people,'' Crowley said. 

The White House official said Putin told Clinton that his offer to send 
Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov to meet both Milosevic and Kostunica had 
been rejected by Milosevic. 


#3.
Yugoslav Opposition Vows to Paralyse Serbia

By Fredrik Dahl

BELGRADE, Oct 2 (Reuters) - Opposition parties vow to bring Serbia to a 
standstill on Monday at the start of new nationwide protests to force 
President Slobodan Milosevic to accept election defeat and quit after 13 
years in power. 

The opposition campaign of civil disobedience comes amid mounting 
international pressure against Milosevic, with U.S. Secretary of State 
Madeleine Albright urging Russia to use its full influence on Yugoslavia, a 
nation of fellow Orthodox Slavs. 

``At 5 a.m. (0300 GMT) on Monday Serbia will come to a halt,'' said one 
opposition leader, Vuk Obradovic. 

The opposition in Serbia, federal Yugoslavia's main republic, is trying to 
force the man blamed by the West for a decade of Balkan wars to leave office 
after his defeat by Vojislav Kostunica in September 24 presidential 
elections. 

The state-controlled Yugoslav Electoral Commission has called a second round 
for October 8 despite opposition evidence that Kostunica won outright. 

Outlining plans for protests in a race against the clock before the scheduled 
runoff vote, Obradovic said state institutions and municipalities would be 
paralysed although not their essential services. 

``All institutions will carry out essential functions; the post office will 
work for (that purpose), hospitals will accept urgent cases,'' said 
Obradovic, a former Yugoslav army general. 

Acting to prevent Serbia being plunged into darkness by opposition strike 
action, Belgrade police sealed off the main pit on Sunday at the country's 
biggest coal mine, mineworkers said. The mine is the only supplier to the 
Obrenovac thermal power station that provides half of Serbia's power needs. 

``We are dealing with unreasonable people and we have to apply drastic 
methods,'' said Milan Protic, another opposition leader. ``We will do 
everything in our power to avert violence. However, we will have to keep 
pushing with civil disobedience as this is the only language the regime 
understands. 

``They (the authorities) did not want to count our votes, so now they have to 
count us on the streets,'' he said. 

Protic is an academic and future mayor of Belgrade, where the opposition 
swept the board in municipal elections that accompanied the presidential 
vote. 

PROTESTS IN MILOSEVIC'S HOME TOWN 

In Milosevic's home town Pozarevac, thousands of opposition backers took to 
the streets on Sunday night chanting, ``He's finished.'' Amid rumours that 
they had left the country, the wife and son of Milosevic both made defiant 
appearances there at the weekend. 

In Belgrade, protesters blocked roads in a ``dress rehearsal'' for 
country-wide civil disobedience. 

``Tomorrow we shall block the roads for three hours, on Tuesday for four 
hours and on Wednesday begins the general blockade of Serbia,'' Protic said 
on Sunday. 

Taking lessons from last year's NATO air strikes, the West is trying to bring 
Russian weight to bear on Milosevic, who is believed to have let NATO into 
Kosovo after 78 days of bombing partly because Moscow told him it was no 
longer on his side. 

Russia's special envoy to the Balkans, Vladimir Chizov, has begun a mission 
in Belgrade and the United States wants him to deliver a clear message to 
Milosevic: accept defeat and go. 

``What we would like the Russians to do is say very explicitly that the 
evidence indicates that the opposition won the first round,'' said a State 
Department official travelling with Albright, who was due to see French 
President Jacques Chirac and Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine in Paris on 
Monday. 

RUSSIAN DIPLOMACY 

The German government said on Sunday Russian President Vladimir Putin had 
agreed with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder that Kostunica's electoral 
victory a week ago reflected the will of the people for democratic change. 

Russia, a traditional ally of Serbia, has declined publicly to take sides in 
the dispute between Milosevic and his foes. Putin had offered to send his 
foreign minister to mediate but, opposition sources say, Milosevic has 
rejected the offer. 

In other protests around Serbia on Monday, a general strike was planned in 
the central town of Gornji Milanovac and in the western town of Uzice, where 
all 3,200 workers have been striking at the Sevojno copper mill. 

A total blockade of Mladenovac, near Belgrade, was planned from noon. 

The campaign of disobedience recalled protests after local elections in 1996, 
when the opposition also said the authorities had falsified the results. 
Milosevic eventually acknowledged opposition victories in a string of towns, 
but only after three months of continuous street demonstrations. 

This time the opposition wants him to back down in days. 

The United States has ruled out any deal with Milosevic, who has been 
indicted for alleged war crimes in Kosovo by the international criminal 
tribunal in The Hague. 



#4.
Serbian Police Seal off Striking Coal Pit

By Gordana Kukic

BELGRADE, Oct 1 (Reuters) - Belgrade police on Sunday sealed off the main pit 
at Serbia's biggest coal mine where a strike in support of the opposition 
threatens to plunge large parts of the country into darkness, mineworkers 
said. 

``Strong police forces have sealed off the pit area,'' Miodrag Rankovic, a 
member of the strike committee, said by telephone. 

But another mine official said tension had eased with reports coming in that 
some police had withdrawn. 

``Miners, members of their families and other citizens are here. We will all 
stay here until morning,'' Milutin Bobic said. ``The pit will not work until 
our demand is met.'' 

On Friday night, around 4,000 workers at Kolubara laid down their tools as 
part of a campaign of civil disobedience aimed at forcing President Slobodan 
Milosevic to quit after he came second to challenger Vojislav Kostunica in 
September 24 elections. 

Dragan Sijan, another strike committee member, reported a large police 
presence near Tamnava, the largest pit at Kolubara accounting for 70 percent 
of the mine's output. ``They have blocked all the access roads to the pit.'' 

A two-line police cordon set up some three kilometres (two miles) from 
Tamnava pit had been preventing people from going to the mine. 

But Sijan said the number of people in Tamnava rose to several thousand by 
Sunday night. ``They were coming from everywhere.'' 

An opposition leader, Nebojsa Covic, said around 5,000 people gathered at the 
exit to Tamnava pit off the main Serbian road linking Belgrade with 
Montenegro in support of striking miners. 

``It is an ugly and a sad picture where two groups of the same people -- one 
in uniforms and the other in civilian clothes -- are confronting each other 
because of one man who does not want to recognise his (election) defeat,'' he 
said by telephone. 

Kolubara, with a daily output of 70,000 tonnes, is the only supplier to the 
thermal power station in nearby Obrenovac, which produces half of Serbia's 
power needs. 

The state-run power company, Elektroprivreda Srbije (EPS), urged the miners 
to return to work. ``Due to the break in coal production, EPS is forced to 
introduce restrictions in the supply of electricity,'' EPS said on state 
television. 

RAISED TENSION 

The increased police presence raised tension in the nearby town of Lazarevac. 
A column of around 25 private cars was seen driving towards the mine, and 
Rankovic said other people were heading there on foot. 

Nikola Simic, another committee member, said he believed the Belgrade 
authorities had sent special police to end the strike because local police 
had refused to intervene. 

On Saturday workers at Kolubara were given compulsory work orders, meaning 
they can be automatically fired if they disobey. 

Three of the six generators at Obrenovac power station have already been shut 
down due to a lack of coal. 

In Kostolac, a coal mine in eastern Serbia, some 4,500 miners began a strike 
on Sunday. They too have received compulsory work orders. 

The management of Kostolac thermal plant, the second biggest in Serbia after 
Obrenovac, were discussing when to shut down the plant completely, a local 
opposition leader told Reuters. 

Workers at the Pancevo oil refinery and the Petrohemija petrochemical plant 
said they would go on strike from Monday, according to independent Radio 
B2-92 in Belgrade. 

The Sevojno copper smelter in the west of the country has been on strike 
since Saturday.