[ALBSA-Info] Serb Opposition Calls for Blockade from Monday/Milosevic Rejects Russian Mediation Offer-source/Milosevic Defiant as Russia, Greece Offer Mediation/Albright: Milosevic Is Finished

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1. Serb Opposition Calls for Blockade from Monday
2. Milosevic Rejects Russian Mediation Offer-source
3. Milosevic Defiant as Russia, Greece Offer Mediation
4. Milosevic Tries To Cling to Power
5. Albright: Milosevic Is Finished


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#1.
Serb Opposition Calls for Blockade from Monday

BELGRADE, Sept 30 (Reuters) - Opponents of Yugoslav President Slobodan 
Milosevic on Saturday called for a blockade of all institutions from early 
Monday morning as part of their attempt to force him to admit election 
defeat. 

Opposition leader Vuk Obradovic made the call at a rally in central Belgrade, 
referring to opposition candidate Vojislav Kostunica, who the opposition 
believes won last Sunday's poll outright, as the Yugoslav president. 

``The Democratic Opposition of Serbia has taken the decision, supported by 
Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica, that on Monday at 0500 (0300 GMT) a 
total blockade of all institutions of the system and general civil 
disobedience will begin,'' he said. 

Obradovic, a former general in the Yugoslav army, told people they should 
invent their own methods of civil disobedience, but urged them to stick to 
peaceful means. 

``On Monday every one of us must face the question of what I personally can 
do,'' he said. 


#2.
Milosevic Rejects Russian Mediation Offer-source

BELGRADE, Sept 30 (Reuters) - Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic has 
rejected a Russian offer to mediate in Yugoslavia's political crisis, a Serb 
opposition source told Reuters on Saturday. 

``Milosevic has rejected (Russian Foreign Minister Igor) Ivanov's visit,'' 
the source said. Russian officials in Moscow were not immediately available 
for comment. 

The source said the opposition was now trying to arrange a meeting in Moscow 
on Sunday between its presidential candidate Vojislav Kostunica and Russian 
President Vladimir Putin, who had offered to send his foreign minister to 
Belgrade. 

Earlier, the independent Beta news agency quoted the U.N. human rights 
investigator for former Yugoslavia as saying Milosevic had rejected the 
offer. 

``Jiri Dienstbier said this afternoon Slobodan Milosevic had refused the 
mediation of Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov,'' the agency said. 

Clarifying his remarks, a U.N. official with Dienstbier said he had based his 
comments -- made at a news conference in the Montenegrin capital Podgorica -- 
on a news report. 

Putin said earlier in Moscow he was ready to send Ivanov to Belgrade for 
consultations with both sides, but only if the Milosevic government accepted 
the offer. 


#3.
Milosevic Defiant as Russia, Greece Offer Mediation

By Gordana Kukic

BELGRADE, Sept 30 (Reuters) - Russia and Greece offered on Saturday to help 
resolve the bitter political standoff between the Serbian opposition and 
Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, who showed no sign of stepping down. 

The embattled Balkan leader, defying calls at home and abroad to accept 
defeat in Sunday's elections, used a speech at a Yugoslav army ceremony to 
make clear he would not bow to outside pressure. 

Milosevic, blamed by the West for the violent breakup of old socialist 
Yugoslavia in the 1990s, said the country would resist pressure just as it 
resisted NATO's bombing campaign last year. 

``We will counter pressures and threats with the truth, unity, knowledge, 
work and creativity just as we did successfully during the (NATO) aggression 
and in the subsequent reconstruction of our country,'' Milosevic said. 

As he spoke, sporadic protests against him broke out in some parts of Serbia, 
including several thousand people blocking a road from the southern town of 
Pirot to the city of Nis, according to Beta news agency. 

Workers at Serbia's biggest coal mine, Kolubara, were on strike for a second 
day, an engineer at the plant said. 

The Serbian opposition has vowed to bring Serbia to a standstill on Monday 
and protest rallies were planned for Saturday evening in Belgrade and other 
towns. 

FOREIGN MEDIATION MAY NOT BE EFFECTIVE 

On the diplomatic front, it was unclear how foreign mediation could break the 
impasse over the presidential election result. The opposition says vote 
counting was fraudulent and should be carried out again under international 
supervision. 

Official results said opposition candidate Vojislav Kostunica won, but with 
less than the 50 percent needed for an immediate triumph, forcing a runoff 
vote on October 8. The opposition says Kostunica won outright and has pledged 
to boycott the second round. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin said he was ready to send Foreign Minister 
Igor Ivanov to Belgrade for consultations with both sides, but only if the 
Milosevic government accepts. 

``If Belgrade agrees, we are prepared for even more active participation in 
the process of resolution and the process of agreeing positions,'' Putin said 
in brief televised excerpts of comments to Russian journalists. 

Greece, also a traditional Serb ally, made a similar offer of mediation and 
said it was ready to send observers to monitor a new vote count, a prospect 
Milosevic is unlikely to agree to. 

The Yugoslav opposition has been actively courting Moscow, which so far has 
taken a neutral stance towards the election, unlike the West, which backs 
Kostunica's claim to outright victory and has urged Milosevic to quit power. 

OPPOSITION SEEKS HELP 

Opposition leaders have sent their version of the vote count to Moscow to try 
to persuade the Kremlin to condemn Milosevic, a move that would inflict 
serious damage on his authority. They have also reached out to Greece for 
help. 

U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright welcomed Russia's offer and said 
she would soon speak to Ivanov. 

``I think that the Russians need to make clear also that they understand that 
this has been a procedure in which the opposition has won,'' she said during 
a visit to Iceland. 

But Russia remained reluctant to take sides in the dispute, Putin saying the 
Yugoslav people should determine their fate without interference. 

Western diplomats said the Russian move had been expected. 

``They have indicated that they were going to take an initiative, to play a 
role,'' one envoy said. ``It is a risky political game for the Russians,'' he 
added, ``but if anyone is to succeed, it is them.'' 

Greece, which shares its Orthodox Christian faith with Serbia, has distanced 
itself from Milosevic in recent years, opening lines of communication to the 
opposition and campaigning for democracy in the Balkans. 

Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou telephoned Kostunica this week to 
advise him to consider taking part in the second round, a call that was 
rejected. 

He was later due to consult Hubert Vedrine, foreign minister of France, 
current holder of the rotating EU presidency. 

A large rally is planned for Belgrade on Saturday evening, as the opposition 
tries to gather momentum for a widespread campaign of boycotts, strikes and 
protests. 

Around 20,000 people gathered in the capital on Friday afternoon, well down 
on the 100,000 one opposition leader had said were needed to kick off the 
campaign properly, and on the 200,000 who rallied in Belgrade on Wednesday 
evening. 

Milosevic's tight grip on the media, especially in the capital, was slowing 
the spread of the opposition's message, and most Serbs were relying on word 
of mouth for news of the campaign. 

But in a relatively strong start to the non-violent campaign, students walked 
out of schools in a string of towns run by the opposition, taxi drivers 
blocked traffic, workers at several companies went on strike and cinemas and 
theatres closed in the capital Belgrade and elsewhere. 

The opposition has called an initial five days of protests, but more could 
follow as Milosevic and his backers have made it clear they will defy 
pressure to cede power after 13 turbulent years marked by wars, isolation and 
economic decay. 

Most attention is focused on Monday, when the opposition will try to bring 
Serbia to a standstill at the start of the working week. 


#4.
Milosevic Tries To Cling to Power

By DUSAN STOJANOVIC

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) - Battling demands he step down, Slobodan Milosevic 
still has cards in his deck: He insists he'll go through with a runoff 
election next weekend - even if he runs alone - and many fear the Yugoslav 
leader will use force against his opponents. 

And the jury is still out whether the opposition will succeed quickly next 
week in paralyzing the country to force Milosevic to accept what it says was 
his defeat by challenger Vojislav Kostunica in the Sept. 24 election. 

Nevertheless, there is a growing sense in Belgrade that Milosevic's 13-year 
reign is coming to an end because the overwhelming majority of people - tired 
of wars and economic misery - have turned their backs on him. 

After years of sly political maneuvering, rigging elections and even 
triggering wars to stay in power - and futile Western and domestic opposition 
attempts to unseat him - Milosevic has walked into his own trap. 

By calling early elections, the incumbent Yugoslav president miscalculated. 
He gambled that he alone could tap the public hostility to the West after 
last year's NATO bombing. He based his campaign on blasting the opposition as 
``NATO lackeys and stooges.'' 

The election, however, showed that anti-Western, nationalist themes alone are 
not enough. They no longer carry the resonance they once did among the 
majority of Yugoslavs, who live on the brink of poverty caused by 
international isolation, economic mismanagement and corruption. 

And Kostunica, a NATO critic with ``nationalistic'' credentials, could not be 
easily pictured as a stooge of the Western alliance. 

Still, Milosevic's announcement that he will stand in a runoff next weekend 
shows that there probably will be no quick, early exit for a leader who has 
wielded power here for 13 years. 

``Milosevic will run in the second round like nothing has happened, and 
consider any attempts of street protest against his decision an 
unconstitutional act that gives him right to use force,'' said Misha Glenny, 
a Balkan expert and British author of books on the region. 

This opens the door for a major crisis, including the possibility of a public 
uprising, which would likely bring Milosevic's trademark forceful response. 

Milosevic, who was reportedly furious over election results, has several 
options. 

None, however, guarantees success. 

He could use police or the military against opposition demonstrators and 
their leaders and proclaim a state of emergency claiming they are American 
agents who want to take power by force. 

But despite public support from top army commanders, the rank and file are 
said to be highly dissatisfied with Milosevic. 

``I don't think he can use force any more,'' said opposition leader Goran 
Svilanovic. ``He can provoke incidents, but not massive violence. Even if 
Milosevic tries to order police or military action, he cannot finalize such 
orders any more.'' 

He also cannot get what he wants from the elections - a stamp of legitimacy 
at home and abroad. 

The government has released its figures showing Kostunica finishing first a
mong the five candidates in Sunday's ballot but short of the absolute 
majority required to avoid a runoff. The opposition and Western governments 
claim Kostunica won outright. 

Still, the fact that Milosevic admitted trailing Kostunica shattered the aura 
of power which the Yugoslav leader has used to maintain his grip on this 
country, where intimidation, control of smuggling rackets and brute force 
traditionally count for more than constitutional forms. 

As the master of divide-and-conquer tactics, Milosevic may try to drive a 
rift in the 18-party opposition coalition that supports Kostunica by bribing 
or intimidating its leaders. 

But ``this time he can't do it as we are united against him,'' another 
opposition official, Zarko Korac, said. ``He's simply buying time as he's in 
panic.'' 

The influential independent newspaper Danas said in a commentary that ``the 
regime is again apparently ready to play the cards of fear and civil war to 
postpone its agony.'' 

``Serbs have again found themselves in a horror film in which the main 
negative character dies 10 times, but doesn't really pass away until The End 
appears on the screen,'' Danas said. 

EDITOR'S NOTE: Dusan Stojanovic is the AP's chief correspondent in Yugoslavia 
and has covered Balkan affairs for the Associated Press since 1984. 


#5.
Albright: Milosevic Is Finished

By RICHARD MIDDLETON

REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) - Secretary of State Madeleine Albright urged Russia 
on Saturday to accept that Slobodan Milosevic was ``finished'' as president 
of Yugoslavia. 

Albright was reacting to news that Russian President Vladimir Putin had 
offered to send Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov to Belgrade to talk to both 
sides in Yugoslavia's election standoff. 

So far, Russia hasn't taken sides in the dispute over who won Yugoslavia's 
presidential vote on Sunday. Opposition candidate Vojislav Kostunica says he 
beat President Slobodan Milosevic outright, while Milosevic says a runoff is 
necessary to determine the winner because Kostunica got less than 50 percent 
of the vote. 

Albright said she planned to speak to Ivanov later in the day, and would 
stress that Kostunica had won the election. 

``I think the Russians need to make clear that they understand that this has 
been a procedure where the opposition has won,'' Albright said at a news 
conference in Reykjavik. 

``The Russians need to understand that Milosevic lost in this round. He is 
finished. It is time for him to go.'' 

Albright also said she had spoken to leading parties in the Middle East peace 
process in an effort to ease tensions which erupted in violence in Jerusalem. 

She said that she had telephoned both Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader, 
and Israel's prime minister Ehud Barak in a bid to keep the peace process on 
course. 

``We are very concerned about the violence. It is clearly counterproductive 
in the peace process,'' Albright said. ``There is danger of a cycle of 
violence developing. The talks are at a very delicate stage and it is 
important that the violence stops.'' 

Albright stopped briefly in Iceland, a NATO ally, on her way to France and 
Germany, and met with Foreign Minister Halldor Asgrimsson and Prime Minister 
David Oddsson. 

An agreement between the two countries for the U.S. use of the military base 
at Keflavik in southwest Iceland is due for renewal in April. Iceland relies 
on NATO and the U.S. forces for its defense. 

Albright said any changes in U.S. commitments to Iceland were unlikely.