
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 13, 1991                   TAG: 9103130339
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: BELGRADE, YUGOSLAVIA                                LENGTH: Short

SERBIAN LEADERS YIELD

The Marxist leadership of Serbia caved in Tuesday night to the power of a boisterously peaceful anti-government demonstration that by Tuesday evening had swelled to about 100,000 people in Belgrade's central Republic Square.

After four consecutive days of protests that constituted the biggest anti-communist street movement in Belgrade since World War II, the embattled regime of hard-line President Slobodan Milosevic made a series of sweeping concessions that included the firing of five senior editors at state-run television and enactment of a law that guarantees objectivity in state media.

In taking the actions, the regime met the original demands made Saturday by thousands of demonstrators who were attacked by Serbian police and Yugoslav army troops, leaving two people dead. The violence spawned a whole new set of demands from protesters who refused to leave the streets.

The government also agreed to creation of a multiparty parliamentary commission to investigate the violence and to release scores of protesters arrested over the weekend. In response to the concessions, protest leaders said they would end the demonstration.

Among those released from government custody was Vuk Draskovic, a nationalist who leads the largest opposition party, the Serbian Renewal Movement.

by CNB