ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, December 1, 1996 TAG: 9612020058
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-14 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BELGRADE, YUGOSLAVIA
SOURCE: Associated Press
In the biggest rally ever against Serbia's authoritarian president, 150,000 people marched through the capital Saturday, hurling eggs and firecrackers at city hall and state television offices.
The rally began when about 15,000 students took to the streets in the 13th day of protests against Slobodan Milosevic, and it grew throughout the day.
``This is the fight for democracy and our future,'' said Milica Panic, a 23-year-old law student, as she joined a long column of marching youths. ``It is not just a fight for election results.''
Protesters threw eggs at government buildings, state-run television and publishing houses. Later they carried flashlights to cut through the dense Belgrade fog.
Students and other opposition supporters want Milosevic to recognize an opposition victory in local elections in Belgrade and other major Serbian cities.
They also demand his resignation, saying that the other Balkan countries have thrown out their Communist rulers and Milosevic's time has come.
``The news has finally reached Milosevic that the Berlin Wall is down,'' said one opposition leader, Vesna Pesic. ``We may be six years late, but that's what is going on now in Serbia. This is the beginning of the end of totalitarianism, and the triumph of democracy.''
A court controlled by Milosevic annulled the Nov. 17 election, re-ran the voting and declared victory for his ruling Socialists.
Protesters have been on the streets every day since in progressively larger numbers, with Saturday's the biggest yet. But so far they have been unable to dent Milosevic's control. Police have been present, but they have not reacted to crowds hurling eggs, tomatoes, red paint and rocks.
Milosevic has ignored the uprising, choosing not to use force as he did twice in the past. The state-run media have barely mentioned the protests, except to denounce scattered violence.
But the president did increase pressure on the few remaining independent media. Ten journalists in the independent Blic daily were fired Saturday after they refused to stop writing about the protests.
Blic is the largest independent daily with a circulation of more than 200,000 sold copies all over Serbia. Earlier this week, a state-run printer reduced Blic's printing run.
Such moves signal Milosevic's fear that the protest could spread to all of Serbia and include workers, who have remained largely aloof.
Zoran Djindjic, a leader of the opposition coalition Zajedno, or Together, said they would organize new and larger rallies in provincial towns and crack an ``information blockade that is keeping Serbia in the dark.''
Few Serbs outside the capital have access to independent media. The main source of news is Serbian TV, which Milosevic tightly controls.
``Milosevic cannot defeat this river of citizens, this uprising against state terrorism,'' said another leader, Vuk Draskovic. ``We will have workers, hospitals, schools with us. The whole of Serbia is against the dictatorship.''
Djindjic pointed out that the opposition has a majority in several large towns: Novi Sad, Kragujevac, Uzice, Cacak, Sombor, Kikinda and Zrenjanin.
Opposition leaders also want an independent judiciary and a new government, as well as a market economy.
Students said that nullification of the election results presents ``an attack on basic human rights and principles.''
``There is no future for us here if the regime can do what they want,'' said medical student Mirko Zivkovic, 21. ``What kind of country is this?''
``If we don't succeed, we are lost,'' said Mirko Nikic, 22, a psychology student, ``Then we can all just leave the country.''
More than 200,000 young people have left Serbia since Milosevic rose to power in 1987 and encouraged wars in Croatia and Bosnia before publicly backing peace in the Balkans.
Many left because they did not want to fight, but many also went searching for a better future in the West.
Serbia's economy is still suffering from the Communist legacy. It has been devastated by mismanagement, corruption and economic sanctions imposed on the country for fomenting the conflict in former Yugoslavia.
LENGTH: Medium: 83 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. A Serbian opposition supporter draped in an Americanby CNBflag hurls an egg at the Belgrade Television center Saturday. More
than 100,000 opposition supporters marched in Belgrade.