[ALBSA-Info] Milosevic Decries Opposition

[Gazhebo at aol.com]

Milosevic Decries Opposition

By DUSAN STOJANOVIC
 
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) - In his first address to the nation since a 
disputed election, Slobodan Milosevic on Monday branded his opponents puppets 
of the West. A wave of unrest aimed at driving him from power swept 
Yugoslavia, and the government responded by arresting dozens of strike 
leaders. 

The general strike and road blockades brought Yugoslavia to a virtual halt in 
the most serious challenge yet to Milosevic's 13-year rule. Even the 
government weather bureau said it would stop issuing forecasts until he 
concedes defeat in the Sept. 24 presidential election. 

In at least two towns, protesters broke into television stations - among the 
pillars of the Milosevic regime. 

The strikes even spread to Milosevic's birthplace, Pozarevac, where about 
20,000 protesters blocked roads and stopped public services, the independent 
Beta news agency said. 

A spokesman for the opposition coalition, Cedomir Jovanovic, reported several 
incidents including a clash with police in Surcin, 12 miles west of Belgrade, 
in which four people were injured. 

Dozens of strike leaders were arrested, opposition officials said. The 
opposition called for people to converge on the capital Thursday in a push to 
drive Milosevic from power. 

Vojislav Kostunica, the opposition leader who says he won the election 
outright, told reporters ``what is happening now is a revolution - a 
peaceful, nonviolent, wise, civilized, quiet and smart democratic 
revolution.'' 

Milosevic has admitted finishing second to Kostunica and called a runoff on 
Sunday. But in his televised speech, he accused his opponents of seeking to 
plunge the country into a ``foreign occupation'' in which ``Yugoslavia will 
inevitably break up.'' 

State radio reported that the government printing office has started making 
ballots for Sunday's vote. However, Kostunica told striking miners on Monday: 
``There will be no runoff.'' 

White House press secretary Jake Siewert said the United States supports the 
opposition in its decision to boycott the runoff, saying, ``It's time for the 
government to recognize that they lost in the first round and the opposition 
prevailed.'' 

Milosevic said in his speech: ``A puppet government guarantees violence, the 
possibility of a war lasting for years - everything except peace. Only 
governing ourselves guarantees peace.'' 

Strikers clogged roads across Serbia, which with the smaller Montenegro 
republic makes up Yugoslavia. 

After blockades and a student rally in Belgrade during the day, about 10,000 
people assembled in the city center after sundown in what participants called 
a spontaneous protest in response to Milosevic's speech. 

``I am here, waiting in the streets of Belgrade where he can't even show his 
face,'' opposition campaign manager Zoran Djindjic told the crowd, which 
booed at every mention of Milosevic's name. ``Let him come here and tell us 
why he has been doing all the terrible things for more than 10 years.'' 

In Novi Sad, Serbia's second-largest city, protesters broke into the state 
television building, interrupting programming. 

Hundreds of employees of state-run firms in Novi Sad joined a column of tens 
of thousands of opposition protesters carrying banners reading ``He's 
Finished.'' 

Protesters in the southern town of Prokuplje seized a local TV station, 
prompting authorities to cut electricity. 

And in the southwestern town of Uzice, railway workers walked off the job and 
thousands of industrial workers joined them, cutting the country's main 
north-south railway link. 

In a veiled threat to tens of thousands of strikers, Milosevic said ``Serbia 
is obliged ... to defend itself from the invasion prepared through various 
means of subversion.'' 

The opposition scoffed at the speech, saying in a statement that it 
``epitomizes a dictator facing ouster, who is begging for help from the 
people he terrorized for 10 years.'' 

``Milosevic made a threatening, very nervous and very unstable speech,'' 
Djindjic said. 

Kostunica visited strikers Monday at the Kolubara coal mine, 30 miles south 
of Belgrade, and urged them to hold out. 

``We're only days away from getting rid of Milosevic when the flames of 
change will engulf the whole country,'' he said. ``There will be no runoff 
because if we had agreed to it, we would be stomping on the will of the 
people.'' 

``Long live the President!'' the miners shouted back, addressing Kostunica. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has resisted Western calls for 
Milosevic to accept defeat, offered to mediate between the two men at a 
meeting in Moscow. There was no immediate response. 

But Kostunica criticized Moscow and Washington for their handling of the 
crisis. 

``Russia is too cautious,'' Kostunica said. ``Russia is defending the 
indefensible.'' 

Kostunica said Washington's insistence on prosecuting Milosevic for war 
crimes had strengthened ``Milosevic in his belief that these elections are a 
question of life and death for him.'' 

In Washington, Siewert said: ``We have several aims. We want to see Milosevic 
out of power. We believe he's been a destructive force for his own people and 
for the region generally. 

``We also want to see him out of Serbia and we'd like to see him in the 
Hague.'' 

Road blockades snarled traffic on a bridge in Belgrade, while city bus 
drivers staged a two-hour walkout. At one intersection, protesters stood in 
pouring rain to link hands and form a human chain after police broke up a 
blockade of four trucks. 

``We have no other option until Milosevic leaves power voluntarily,'' said 
Nebojsa Zdravkovic, a teacher. ``If they want to use force against us, let 
them.'' 

In a sign that Milosevic's grip on media may be ebbing, 86 employees of 
state-run Radio Belgrade demanded a change in its pro-Milosevic editorial 
policies. Similar petitions were reported in the Vecernje Novosti newspaper, 
the official Tanjug news agency and the Serbian TV networks.