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From notes@igc.apc.org Wed Mar 13 03:04:14 1996 Received: from igc5.igc.apc.org (192.82.108.36) by MediaFilter.org with SMTP (MailShare 1.0b10); Wed, 13 Mar 1996 03:04:15 -0500 Received: from cdp.igc.apc.org (cdp.igc.apc.org [192.82.108.1]) by igc5.igc.apc.org (8.7.3/8.7.3) id XAA22438; Tue, 12 Mar 1996 23:50:18 -0800 (PST) Date: 12 Mar 1996 23:42:09 Reply-To: Conference "zamir.chat"From: Ivo Skoric Subject: (Fwd) 20,000 Rally Against Milosevic -Forwarded To: Recipients of zamir-chat-l Message-ID: <199603130741.XAA15219@igc3.igc.apc.org> X-Gateway: conf2mail@igc.apc.org Errors-To: owner-zamir-chat-l@igc.apc.org Precedence: bulk Lines: 58 From: "Ivo Skoric" Subject: (Fwd) 20,000 Rally Against Milosevic -Forwarded Several days ago someone asked me whatever happened to Vuk Draskovic. He showed up on Saturday leading a protest in Belgrade of approximately 20,000 people against Milosevic. The criticism was interesting: launching wars that wrecked Serbia's economy and increasing authoritarian rule. Milosevic has recently begun a crackdown on media he does not control. Tom Warrick Coalition for International Justice ============================================================================== BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (Reuter) - Some 20,000 people rallied in the center of Belgrade against the government of Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic Saturday, the anniversary of opposition protests crushed by troops in 1991. Calling Milosevic and the ruling Socialists ``Red Bandits,'' speakers blamed him for launching wars in Bosnia and Croatia and wrecking Serbia's economy, devastated by U.N. sanctions and hyperinflation over the last five years. The Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO), Democratic Party and other opposition groups called for unity in their ranks, with elections expected later this year. SPO leader Vuk Draskovic told crowds in Belgrade's Republic Square that Milosevic, while playing a new role as peacebroker in Bosnia, was tightening authoritarian rule in rump Yugoslavia, comprising Serbia and tiny Montenegro. ``After the Dayton and Paris agreements (on peace in Bosnia) Milosevic thinks he has a freer hand to do want he wants in Serbia...to make Serbia into a Balkan North Korea,'' he said. Attacking Milosevic's past sponsorship of separatist wars for a ``Greater Serbia'' by Serbs in Bosnia and Croatia, Draskovic said: ``Serbia was great until you decided to make it even greater.'' ``Unification of the opposition is the first step toward Serbian unity and change,'' said Democratic Party leader Zoran Djindjic. ``There can be no reconciliation between the authorities and the opposition.'' The rally adopted a ten-point program including calls for a single list of opposition election candidates, privatization of the economy and an end to political control of the media. Organizers said police had stopped six buses carrying protesters from entering Belgrade Saturday morning and that authorities had at first refused to let them build a stage and loudspeakers for the rally but later relented. Police maintained a low profile around the rally, a pale shadow of 1991's, when tanks and troops put down protests by more than 100,000 people and two people were killed. -- Ivo Skoric **************************** iskoric@igc.apc.org 212.369.9197 @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ 1773 Lexington Ave, NYC NY 10029, USA http://www.peacenet.org/balkans/