|
|
Change Your Life! |
Every evil must come to an end |
|
News
|
|
|
October 6, 2000
BELGRADE (AP) - Angry protesters demanding that Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic step down charged the parliament building Thursday, pelting the doors with stones as hundreds of thousands of opposition supporters converged on the capital. Riot police responded with tear gas as the protesters broke through a police cordon and reached the parliament doors. Hundreds of people scattered in panic. The melee erupted at the start of a huge rally the opposition called to force Milosevic to accept electoral defeat in the Sept. 24 election. In what was apparently the largest anti-Milosevic protest since his 13-year rule began, hundreds of thousands of people had assembled less than an hour before the rally was to begin, and tens of thousands more were seen streaming into the city. Police had already fired tear gas at a group of protesters who tried to push their way into the domed parliament building earlier in the afternoon. "At this moment, terror rules in Belgrade," pro-Milosevic government television said in a commentary. Protesters were described as "attacking everyone they see on the streets and there is chaos." A reporter at the scene saw at least five injured protesters lying on the steps of parliament. One policeman caught by the crowd was beaten. Several policemen deserted their cordon and joined the protesters, reporters at the scene said. Five police cars near the parliament were set afire. Tensions were rising after the Yugoslav Constitutional Court issued a ruling that one justice reportedly said nullified the recent election. The opposition claimed the decision by the pro-Milosevic court was aimed at prolonging his stay in power. By early afternoon, downtown Belgrade was a mass of people, many streaming toward the parliament building and blocking traffic as they did so. As rally organizers appealed for nonviolence and blasted rock music through the capital, people in the crowd waved flags, shouted and jostled each other in the streets. Many wore paper caps with the slogan, "We'll Endure." They moved past shops, some shut down with signs stating, "Closed because of Robbery" - an allusion to opposition claims that Milosevic stole the elections. Some state-run stores, prohibited from shutting down in anti-Milosevic protest, did so nonetheless under the cover of taking inventory. Thousands more people joined smaller rallies in towns throughout the country. In the city of Nis, about 10,000 people tried to push their way into the local office of Milosevic's party but were persuaded by opposition leaders not to give police a reason to attack them. The government acknowledged that Vojislav Kostunica outpolled Milosevic but says he fell short of a majority in the five-candidate race. A run-off had been set for Sunday. Late Wednesday, the constitutional court, in a brief dispatch by the state-run Tanjug news agency, said "part" of the Sept. 24 election had been annulled. There was no comprehensive statement from the court. But one justice, Milutin Srdic, told Radio Free Europe that the entire election result had been thrown out and a new vote would be required. In the meantime, Srdic said Milosevic could remain in office through his term, which expires in July. The opposition said it had not been officially notified of the ruling. However, opposition legal expert Nebojsa Bakarec dismissed the decision as the latest "in a series of unconstitutional moves" by Milosevic "to manipulate the electoral will of the people." The United States, Britain and other Western governments condemned the apparent move to extend Milosevic's tenure. "It is very evident to us that an absolute majority of the Yugoslav people voted for Mr. Kostunica for president," Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said in Egypt. "The people of Yugoslavia have made their will known: Milosevic should not thwart them." In what the opposition hoped was a further sign the regime was crumbling, more than 160 employees of Serbian state television - a major pillar of Milosevic's power - were fired Thursday after going on strike. Most were technicians and staff of nonpolitical programs. Most Milosevic loyalists remained, and kept the network on the air. Elsewhere, police in Subotica, near the Hungarian border, arrested a student activist, triggering a protest rally Thursday by about 10,000 people in the main town square. Police had set up roadblocks outside Belgrade, but the convoys of protesters were so large that most of them were allowed to pass. A convoy of about 2,000 people was briefly blocked near the town of Smederevska Palanka, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) south of Belgrade, but it eventually pushed its way through barricades. Protesters used a front-end loader to shove aside two sand trucks used by authorities to try to block a 12-mile (20-kilometer) line of cars and buses with about 15,000 people traveling from the opposition stronghold of Cacak. Riot police stood by without intervening. At another roadblock, trucks were pushed away and demonstrators negotiated with a police commander to be allowed through. At yet another blockade, angry protesters overturned a police car and dumped it into a ditch. The mass march on Belgrade followed a day of dramatic developments at the strikebound Kolubara coal mine. Police there were forced to abandon plans to take over the compound after confronting fearless anti-Milosevic crowds. Such defiance in the face of police was unprecedented in Yugoslavia's 55-year communist history. |