[ALBSA-Info] Electoral Body Sets Runoff for Milosevic, Foe/ANALYSIS-Wary Kosovo Ponders Life after Milosevic/Russia: Don't Interfere in Belgrade/Ex-KLA Chief Warns Yugoslav Leaders/200,000 Milosevic Opponents Rally

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1. Electoral Body Sets Runoff for Milosevic, Foe
2. ANALYSIS-Wary Kosovo Ponders Life after Milosevic
3. Russia: Don't Interfere in Belgrade
4. Ex-KLA Chief Warns Yugoslav Leaders
5. 200,000 Milosevic Opponents Rally

******

#1.
Electoral Body Sets Runoff for Milosevic, Foe

By Fredrik Dahl

BELGRADE, Sept 29 (Reuters) - Yugoslavia's electoral body ruled on Thursday 
President Slobodan Milosevic and challenger Vojislav Kostunica must undergo a 
second round of elections on October 8 because neither won a majority in the 
first. 

The verdict by the state-dominated commission flew in the face of assertions 
by the opposition bloc that Kostunica won outright in Sunday's polls and 
raised the spectre of an explosive street confrontation with the government. 

Opposition leaders, flexing newfound muscles before around 200,000 faithful 
massed in Belgrade on Wednesday night, vowed no compromise with Milosevic 
that would see them submitting to a runoff following alleged ballot-rigging 
on Sunday. 

``This time it will not take them 88 days to accept the truth, they have less 
than 24 hours to do that,'' Kostunica said in a rousing speech to a huge 
crowd packed into a city centre square, hinting at huge popular demand for 
Milosevic to bow out. 

Kostunica was recalling a three-month campaign of nightly street protests in 
1996-97 that eventually forced Milosevic to admit defeat in municipal 
elections, whose results the government was accused of falsifying. 

Opposition leaders were so riven by feuding then that they proved unable to 
capitalise on their victory and Milosevic entrenched himself in power. 

ELECTORAL COMMISSION SAYS VOTE NOT CLEARCUT 

Contradicting what the opposition and supportive Western governments called 
overwhelming evidence of Kostunica's absolute majority, the electoral 
commission said the outcome was inconclusive and it voted 10-3 to sanction a 
second round. 

``Based on the final results from 10,673 polling sites ... presidential 
candidate Vojislav Kostunica won 2,474,392 votes, or 48.96 percent, and 
Slobodan Milosevic 1,951,761 votes, or 38.62 percent,'' the commission said 
in a statement carried by the official news agency Tanjug. 

On Tuesday, the commission had issued preliminary figures that it said showed 
Milosevic had won 2,026,478 votes, or 40.25 percent, and Kostunica 2,428,714, 
or 48.22 percent. 

Milosevic loyalists who head the commission sought to explain the difference 
on Thursday by saying the number of registered voters had been pinpointed at 
7,249,831. On Tuesday and before the vote, a figure of 7,848,818 was given. 

``Neither of the candidates won a majority of the votes ... Therefore, there 
will be a second round on Sunday, October 8,'' the commission statement said. 

An opposition member of the commission said the runoff was mandated after 
permanent, Milosevic-aligned members of the body insisted on an immediate 
vote to certify results suddenly presented by the body's president. 

OPPOSITION SAYS UNABLE TO CHECK RESULTS 

``He (was) ... holding in his hand an unsigned piece of paper saying the 
figures had been provided by the Yugoslav Statistics Office,'' Sinisa Nikolic 
of the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS) told Reuters. 

``We were not allowed to inspect the election material.'' 

Asked about the commission's decision, Zoran Djindjic, one of the DOS leaders 
and manager of Kostunica's election campaign, said Milosevic could no longer 
treat his people like fools. 

``This is not the same Serbia as it was 10 years ago, the Serbia that he 
Milosevic could ... play with like a retarded child with a toy,'' Djindjic 
told Reuters. 

``With this act he (Milosevic) is not only risking his presidential post but 
much more,'' he said, without elaborating. 

At Wednesday's rally, Kostunica did not say what the opposition would do to 
support its claim, based on figures from activists at polling stations around 
the country, that he garnered over 50 percent of the vote on Sunday. 

Armed with these figures, he reiterated that he would boycott any runoff 
against Milosevic. 

The opposition believes calling a second round is simply a manoeuvre that 
Milosevic will exploit to stay in office. 

``We will do everything in our power, but without violence as they do, so 
that the truth surfaces,'' said Kostunica. 

PRECARIOUS SITUATION FOR OPPOSITION 

But analysts say the opposition has a risky road before it. 

They say the bigger, more sustained and strident demonstrations get, the 
greater the chance of violence between opposition supporters and Milosevic's 
dreaded security forces. 

The Serbian leader might then accuse his foes of trying to overthrow him by 
fomenting anarchy with Western help and then cancel any voting, salvaging his 
grip on rule, some say. 

Late on Wednesday Yugoslav Foreign Minister Zivadin Jovanovic accused Western 
powers of using foreign and Yugoslav media and huge amounts of money to 
destabilise the country and put pressure on the government. 

``We are talking primarily about media and political pressure, as well as 
pressure through big money,'' Jovanovic told Serbian state television. 

Wednesday's popular outpouring in Belgrade was the biggest show of defiance 
against Milosevic, whose 13-year tenure has seen the country laid low by 
ethnic wars, economic meltdown and international isolation. 

Rallies were held elsewhere. Some 50,000 opposition backers demonstrated in th
e northwestern Serbian city of Novi Sad. 

``We are fighting for democracy, democracy is based on truth, not on lies. 
The truth is that we won these elections and they lost,'' Kostunica said, as 
people sang ``Slobodan, Slobodan, save Serbia and kill yourself!.'' 

Security forces kept a low profile and Wednesday's Belgrade rally was 
peaceful, despite warnings of provocation and tension over a last-minute 
police order to move the venue from a much larger space in front of the 
Yugoslav parliament. 

In Washington President Bill Clinton accused Milosevic of trying to steal the 
election from the opposition and said the United States would support the 
people of Serbia. 

But the sobering message from NATO Secretary-General George Robertson was: 
``The next chapter in the democratisation of Yugoslavia is in the hands of 
the people of Yugoslavia themselves.'' 


#2.
ANALYSIS-Wary Kosovo Ponders Life after Milosevic

By Douglas Hamilton
  
PRISTINA, Yugoslavia, Sept 27 (Reuters) - Kosovo Albanians on Wednesday began 
coming to grips with the prospect of change in Serbia -- by no means an 
obvious cause for celebration here. 

Grasping a subject dismissed as irrelevant, even injurious, to Kosovo's will 
to independence, political analysts reluctantly started pondering life after 
Slobodan Milosevic. 

Yugoslavia's veteran president officially lost to his rival Vojislav 
Kostunica in the first round of Sunday's presidential election. Milosevic 
wants a runoff contest, but Kostunica refuses, saying he has already won an 
absolute majority. 

Kosovo Albanians needed no encouragement from their leaders to ignore the 
Yugoslav election. They shunned it as a purely Serbian affair that made no 
difference to their lives or future, since they vow never to be part of 
Yugoslavia again. 

Western sponsors of self-government in Kosovo, most of them NATO allies whose 
bombing compelled Milosevic to withdraw his forces from Kosovo last year, view
 that stance as short-sighted, selfish, suspicious and naive, and hope it 
will change. 

``They have to be mature and think of the stability of the region. It's wrong 
to think their neighbour's problems are somehow a good thing for Kosovo,'' a 
European Union analyst said. 

LOSING THE PERFECT FOIL 

But foreign powers in the ethnically-divided Balkans have a long way to go to 
convince people whose wounds are still fresh that the Serbian leopard can 
change his spots. Many think the West is the one that is naive. 

As Serbs awaited the next act in their tense political drama, Kosovo 
Albanians broached the subject warily and in typical Balkans fashion, zeroing 
in on the alleged background of the man on whom the international community 
focuses its hopes. 

Some warned that victory for Kostunica would rob Kosovo of its perfect foil 
in Milosevic, a murderous neighbour who no people could reasonably be 
expected to live with. Such a victory could also siphon off millions in 
international aid from Kosovo to Serbia. 

The leading daily, Koha Ditore, echoing a charge now making the rounds, 
called Kostunica a ``man who had his picture taken with Serb paramilitaries 
in Kosovo holding a Kalashnikov, who supported (Bosnian Serb hardliner) 
Radovan Karadzic and who refuses to collaborate'' with the international war 
crimes court. 

The Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK), the political offspring of the KLA 
guerrilla movement, also sounded cynical. 

``While it would be in our interest if a democratic force won there, 
Milosevic's victory would be a more favourable position, because the crimes 
he committed in Kosovo are known to the whole world,'' said PDK general 
secretary Jakup Krasniqi. 

The Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), led by veteran pacifist Ibrahim 
Rugova, took a wait-and-see stance, saying a lot would depend on the stand a 
new Belgrade would take towards Kosovo's right to self-determination. But it 
too saw no evidence that Kostunica would be different from Milosevic. 

The smaller AAK coalition was one of the few on Wednesday to express views 
that will be applauded in Western capitals. 

``We will welcome the defeat of the dictatorial regime by a democratic force 
that would contribute to stability in the region...A candidate suitable for 
negotiation with the West would be good also for the people of Kosovo and for 
the others in the region,'' said Bujar Dugolli of the AAK. 

VOICES OF PRAGMATISM 

Much of what the party leaders say is tainted by campaigning for municipal 
elections on October 28, Kosovo's first test in democracy since the United 
Nations established a protectorate in the former Serbian province in June 
1999. 

Westerners who told Kosovars to take Kostunica's stump speeches with a pinch 
of salt argued that it would be impossible for him to get elected in Serbia 
on a pro-Kosovo independence plank. Similarly, it will be very hard to draw 
votes here on any platform favouring rapid reconciliation with Belgrade. 

But pragmatic voices are making themselves heard. 

Koha Ditore publisher Veton Surroi, a respected independent voice of Kosovo, 
recalled satirical suggestions that Milosevic statues be erected in all the 
Yugoslav republics which his Serbian nationalist had propelled to 
independence. 

``With him next door two things were almost guaranteed: one, that he would 
work on destabilising operations in Kosova, second, that whatever we might 
be, we would still be cuter than Milosevic's Serbia,'' Surroi said. 

``But let's see things otherwise: why shouldn't we be happy for any possible 
change in Serbia?'' Surroi wrote. 

``Firstly, the main person responsible for 10 years' crimes in Kosova will 
step down. Second, whoever comes after should be more reasonable, and Kosova, 
looking from a perspective of future negotiations on its final status, needs 
such people for discussion.'' 

Columnist Milazim Krasniqi, of Kosova Sot newspaper, identified crucial 
changes which Kosovo should look for from a new Serbian leadership, starting 
with the removal of fascism and recognition of the rights of their 
neighbours. 

``Kostunica's possible victory is a double-edged blade: it can be favourable 
for the beginning of a process of in-depth changes in Serbia and for the 
relaxation of the region, but it can also encourage the project for the 
reintegration of Kosova in some (federal) scheme with Serbia and Montenegro. 

``Albanian policy in Kosova should work on strengthening the political, state 
and national identity of this country, towards full independence, 
internationally recognised, and not to be overtaken by 'integration projects' 
in the Balkans.'' 


#3.
Russia: Don't Interfere in Belgrade

By JIM HEINTZ
  
MOSCOW (AP) - Russia warned Wednesday against any international intervention 
in Yugoslavia, as Western leaders harshly criticized President Slobodan 
Milosevic for clinging to power after an apparent election loss. 

Many international observers say Milosevic lost outright to challenger 
Vojislav Kostunica, but Milosevic has defied calls to step down. The 
country's central elections commission says a run-off is necessary because 
Kostunica got just under 50 percent - a result being widely questioned 
abroad. 

Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov warned against other countries taking 
any action. 

Russia ``stands firmly for the peoples of Yugoslavia to have full freedom to 
express their will without internal or external pressure,'' Ivanov said. 

``It is important not to allow destabilization of the situation, which would 
play into the hands only of those powers that are not interested in 
preserving a single Yugoslavia and restoring its place in the world arena,'' 
he said. 

Western countries, however, said Milosevic had lost and should leave power. 

``It certainly appears from a distance that they had a free election and 
somebody's trying to take it away from them,'' President Clinton said 
Wednesday. ``The government's official election commission has no credibility 
whatever.'' 

Russia vehemently opposed the NATO-led bombing campaign against Yugoslavia 
last year, but has shown signs of trying to distance itself from Milosevic in 
recent months. Ivanov's use of the phrase ``express their will'' echoed 
phrases by foreign leaders who claim Milosevic is thwarting a clear 
opposition victory. 

Ivanov also urged all political forces in Yugoslavia to act ``strictly in the 
framework of legality, according to the ITAR-Tass news agency. 

German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said Russia should use its 
traditional friendship with Serbia, which along with Montenegro makes up 
Yugoslavia, to work for a solution. 

``Milosevic has lost, the opposition has won,'' Fischer said. ``Russia plays 
a very important role here because of its traditional closeness to Serbia. We 
expect our Russian partners as well to become actively engaged here.'' 

Turkey's Defense Minister Sabhattin Cakmakoglu said Wednesday that ``NATO 
will intervene if there is a crisis'' in Yugoslavia. 

But NATO Secretary-General George Robertson said on Tuesday that there was no 
concentration of NATO troops along the border and other Western officials 
gave no hint of any possible intervention. 

Some leaders combined their criticisms with suggestions of better relations 
if Milosevic yields. 

French President Jacques Chirac said his country, which currently holds the 
chairmanship of the European Union, ``will commit to a radical change of 
attitude'' toward Yugoslavia, including pushing for lifting economic 
sanctions, if Milosevic steps down. 

The sanctions have hurt the country already weakened by war and lifting them 
could also break down Yugoslavia's isolation from the rest of Europe. Echoing 
the idea, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said, ``a democratic Yugoslavia,
 in which human rights are respected, will once again take its rightful, 
equal place in Europe.'' 

Chirac was adamant in contending that Milosevic had lost. ``The current 
manipulations being carried out to steal the victory of the Serb people are 
useless tricks. They must stop,'' he said. 

Erkki Tuomioja, the foreign minister of Finland, said he backs France's 
proposal of dropping sanctions if Milosevic steps down. ``We have previously 
felt these sanctions are not appropriate,'' said Tuomioja. 


#4.
Ex-KLA Chief Warns Yugoslav Leaders

By BRIAN MURPHY

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia (AP) - Any attempts by Yugoslav leaders to return police 
or military units to Kosovo would ``bring another war'' that could trap 
NATO-led forces in the middle, the former Kosovo Liberation Army political 
chief warned Wednesday. 

The increasingly sharp comments by Hashim Thaci are part of efforts to tap 
into pro-independence sentiments and memories of the KLA's struggle against 
Serb forces before Oct. 28 municipal elections. Thaci's Democratic Party of 
Kosovo is particularly critical of the more moderate positions of ethnic 
Albanian leader Ibrahim Rugova. 

Thaci made it clear there would be no compromise on permitting Yugoslav 
security forces back in Kosovo. Such a move has been suggested by opposition 
leader Vojislav Kostunica in the campaign to unseat Yugoslav President 
Slobodan Milosevic. 

``If they attempt to bring back the Serb army and police to Kosovo ... that 
would re-ignite the conflict in Kosovo and bring another war,'' he said in an 
interview with The Associated Press. 

Such a showdown would place NATO-led peacekeepers in the very difficult 
position of tolerating their former Serb foes - the Serbs could only come 
back if allowed to do so by Kosovo's U.N. administrators - while trying to 
quell the KLA rebels they had supported. 

The United Nations mandate to run Kosovo allows for a limited force of 
Yugoslav troops and police to return and assist peacekeepers in guarding 
borders, churches and historical monuments. 

Meanwhile, Kosovo has its own political tensions - violence linked to next 
month's municipal elections has escalated, including arson attacks on 
political offices. 

Several thousand Rugova supporters flocked to Pristina's sports stadium 
Wednesday to hear him speak in his first pre-election rally since the 
campaigning period began two weeks ago. 

His Democratic League of Kosovo party, or LDK, ``stands strongly behind the 
realization of the independence of Kosovo,'' Rugova told a wildly cheering 
crowd. Teenagers hung out of car windows with horns blaring, waving black and 
red Albanian flags racing along the main roads of Pristina. 

Kosovo is still officially part of Yugoslavia, although it is run by the 
United Nations and NATO-led peacekeepers. Yugoslav forces pulled out of the 
province last year. 


#5.
200,000 Milosevic Opponents Rally

By JOVANA GEC
  
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) - More than 200,000 joyful opponents of Slobodan 
Milosevic swarmed the capital's downtown district Wednesday, supporting an 
opposition claim of an electoral triumph over the Yugoslav president. 

Hours later, government early Thursday released final official figures 
showing that the opposition failed to win enough votes for first round 
victory in last weekend's election, prompting the opposition to threaten to 
increase the pressure against the president. 

The biggest demonstration ever against Milosevic completely blocked 
Belgrade's main streets around Republic Square. Much of the downtown area 
teemed with people waving flags and chanting: ``He's finished.'' 

Throughout Serbia, the main Yugoslav republic, thousands streamed into city 
streets, celebrating what they say was the opposition's stunning triumph in 
Sunday's presidential and parliamentary elections. 

The final voting figures from Sunday's balloting showed that opposition 
leader Vojislav Kostunica finished first with 46.4 percent of the 5.5 million 
votes to Milosevic's 38.6 percent, thereby forcing an Oct. 8 runoff. 

The opposition as well as President Clinton and other Western leaders had 
earlier rejected a runoff, saying Kostunica had won more than the required 50 
percent of votes cast to win outright. 

The announcement, distributed by the state news agency Tanjug, said Kostunica 
had fallen short of the required majority. The opposition, using figures from 
its poll watchers, claimed Kostunica won 52.5 percent to Milosevic's 32 
percent - enough for a first-round victory in the five-candidate field. 

Prior to the government announcement, Kostunica told the crowd there will be 
no runoff. 

``If we bargained with them, then we would recognize the lie instead of the 
truth,'' Kostunica said. ``If we bargain, we would recognize that the will of 
one man, Slobodan Milosevic, was stronger than the will of the entire 
nation.'' 

There was quick protest from the opposition to the final voting figures with 
campaign manager Zoran Djindjic saying protests would go beyond daily 
marches, which in the past have failed to remove the Milosevic government. 

``We will call for a total blockade of the system and institutions,'' 
Djindjic told Index radio early Thursday without elaboration. 

And opposition member of the electoral commission, Sinisa Nikolic, said the 
head of the body simply presented delegates with figures late Wednesday 
without allowing them to inspect the returns. 

In New York on Wednesday, former Prime Minister Milan Panic urged Russia, 
Yugoslavia's traditional ally, to offer Milosevic exile in order to spare the 
country from civil war. 

``Otherwise, conflict is almost inevitable,'' said Panic, who was defeated by 
Milosevic for the Serbian presidency in December 1992. 

To avoid conflict, Panic suggested Russian President Vladimir Putin send a 
plane to Belgrade ``to take Milosevic and his clique out.'' 

During Wednesday's protest, demonstrators threw firecrackers and flares, and 
waved thousands of banners reading ``He's done with,'' referring to 
Milosevic's apparent stunning defeat in the presidential election. 

In the center of the square, a note displayed on a digital clock read 
``Slobo, where is your courage now?'' 

``Milosevic is a strongman left without his strength,'' said Kostunica, 
calling on the police and the army ``not to defend Milosevic's family, but 
the people.'' 

The huge crowd also marched past the Federal Parliament building, booing and 
jeering at state electoral officials meeting inside. The state election 
commission is to issue final, official results Thursday evening. 

Such a large opposition turnout - despite fears of clashes with police - 
indicates Milosevic's attempt to intimidate his opponents may fail. 

The victorious atmosphere in Belgrade also suggested the pro-democracy Serbs 
no longer fear Milosevic's autocratic government, sensing he may not be able 
to hold on much longer. 

Western leaders backed the opposition's claim of victory. In Washington, 
Clinton dismissed the runoff, saying, ``it certainly appears from a distance 
that they had a free election, and somebody's trying to take it away from 
them.'' 

``The government's official election commission has no credibility 
whatever,'' Clinton said. 

Russia, however, warned Western countries not to interfere in Yugoslavia. 
Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said Moscow ``stands firmly for the peoples of 
Yugoslavia to have full freedom to express their will without internal or 
external pressure'' and urged other countries ``not to allow destabilization 
of the situation.'' 

Meanwhile, Richard Holbrooke, the American ambassador to the United Nations, 
said his country will move to lift sanctions against Yugoslavia and restore 
its rights as a U.N. member state once the democratically elected challenger 
to Milosevic is installed in office. 

``If the winds of change blow true, a government in Belgrade committed to 
respecting the will of its people will take its rightful place in the 
international community,'' Holbrooke told the Security Council Wednesday in 
New York. 

Shortly before the Belgrade rally, Yugoslavia's foreign minister tried to 
discourage protests, appearing on state television and alleging other nations 
were meddling in Yugoslav affairs. 

Zivadin Jovanovic said pressure was being applied through foreign media and 
independent news organizations at home, which he said were trying to present 
a distorted picture of the country in service of Western enemies. 

Unmoved, the protesters shook baby rattles to show Milosevic's regime was 
broken and couldn't be fixed - playing on a Serbian expression ``broken like 
a baby's rattle'' to describe something that's beyond repair. 

``I can feel a lot of happiness in the air,'' psychologist Zarko Trebjesanin 
said of the mood in Belgrade. ``The genie of freedom and democracy has 
escaped from the bottle and it's impossible to push it back in.'' 

Opposition leaders, trying not to do anything that might give Milosevic a 
reason to crack down, did not contest a police order to move the rally from 
the initial venue - a platform in front of Yugoslavia's federal assembly - 
after authorities said it would disturb work of the state election 
commission.