[ALBSA-Info] Milosevic challenger slams U.S. and Russia

[Gazhebo at aol.com]

Milosevic challenger slams U.S. and Russia

By Julijana Mojsilovic

BELGRADE, Oct 2 (Reuters) - Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's election 
challenger slammed Russian and the United States on Monday, accusing Moscow 
of indecision and Washington of indirectly helping Milosevic's cause. 

Vojislav Kostunica, hoping popular demonstrations will force Milosevic to 
concede defeat in the September 24 poll, said the Russians, who have offered 
to mediate but issued ambiguous statements, had not made up their minds what 
to do. 

``The Russian policy has so far been indecisive and reluctant, I would say 
unnecessarily so. It could be described as taking one step forward and one 
step back,'' Kostunica told a news conference. 

``The Russians don't have a specific and concrete position on the situation 
in Yugoslavia,'' he added.'' 

Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a statement earlier on Monday in 
which he offered to mediate between Milosevic and Kostunica, referring to 
them as candidates in a second election round. Kostunica insists he won 
outright in the first round. 

``We caught Milosevic pickpocketing us and he will have to give us back our 
votes,'' Kostunica said. 

``Any elections held on October 8 will be illegitimate.'' 

He also said the United States had helped to turn the presidential election 
into a matter of survival for Milosevic by insisting he stand trial for war 
crimes before a U.N. tribunal. 

``The policy of the current U.S. authorities, whether they praise Milosevic 
as they have in the past or threaten him with The Hague tribunal as they are 
doing now, actually supports him but I think this support will be 
short-lived,'' Kostunica said. 

``In fact, it could be a matter of life and death for some figures of the 
current U.S. administration,'' he added of Washington's apparent 
determination to oust Milosevic before the U.S. presidential election. 

BIGGER PROTEST WAVE? 

Kostunica said protests launched by his supporters across Serbia on Monday 
were much more effective than demonstrations after local elections in 1996, 
which took three months to persuade Milosevic to accept an opposition 
victory. 

``The whole of Serbia is on its feet now and this is a situation where people 
lead the parties rather than vice versa,'' he said. ``The people's will for 
change has grown into discontent that can't be stopped.'' 

Protests brought a string of towns to a halt on Monday, but failed to make 
much impact on key state institutions in the capital, where sporadic road 
blockades lasted just a few hours. 

Kostunica said he would travel through Serbia later on Monday to express 
gratitude to all those who voted for the main opposition bloc and to 
``appease'' those who voted for Milosevic. 

But he poured cold water on a suggestion that Milosevic could become prime 
minister, an idea put forward by a senior official from the ruling coalition 
and also by Milosevic's brother, who is envoy in Moscow. 

Kostunica said the post rightfully belonged to Predrag Bulatovic, the deputy 
leader of the pro-Belgrade Socialist People's Party in Yugoslavia's smaller 
republic Montenegro. Bulatovic, the party's most popular figure, is a 
moderate who has shown signs of being at odds with Milosevic.