The New York Times

Wednesday, June 23, 1999

BELGRADE

Milosevic Takes Measures to Restrict Demonstrations

By STEVEN ERLANGER

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia -- The Yugoslav Parliament is expected to meet on Thursday to lift the state of wartime emergency, but it will also retain certain restrictions, passing them into law, to deal with expected demonstrations by opposition parties, Yugoslav officials said Tuesday.

Under emergency decrees issued on March 24, the first day of the NATO bombings, government censorship was imposed on all media, men of military age were forbidden to leave the country, demonstrations were banned without prior permission and the police were given sweeping powers of search and arrest to deal with potential spies and war profiteers.

Citing the need to "reconstruct the country," the officials said certain restrictions would be retained. The officials would not specify them, but there has already been a government demand, for example, that all radio and television stations continue to broadcast authorized state news programs.

The new laws, the official Tanjug news agency said Tuesday, would "create conditions" for reconstructing the country. Already, state television is running upbeat advertisements urging people to unite to rebuild Yugoslavia's bridges and factories.

An umbrella group of democratic opposition parties, the Alliance for Change, has called for demonstrations this Saturday in central Serbian towns like Kraljevo and Cacak, which is run by the opposition. But the alliance is already having trouble maintaining its unity.

A key member of the alliance, Democratic Party leader Zoran Djindjic, said Tuesday in London that the Yugoslav president, Slobodan Milosevic, would survive for a time, but be ousted within a year.

The post-war problems of Yugoslavia "will be very risky for him," especially in a difficult winter, Djindjic said. "But as an opposition we must do something. It will not be automatic."

Djindjic urged peaceful protest, saying: "Dictators like violence. If you use violence against dictators they are happy. You must undermine them by supporting positive democratic forces. Not by creating conflict. Milosevic is good in conflicts."

And he urged Western governments to aid Serbia's cities directly in reconstruction, bypassing the central government of Milosevic, who has been indicted as a war criminal.

Djindjic has been denounced in the official newspaper Politika, along with other opposition figures, for having "applauded the successes of NATO missiles in their blind wish to get power."

Milosevic outlasted huge street demonstrations in the winter of 1996-97 that were led by Djindjic, Vesna Pesic, and Vuk Draskovic, the leader of the Serbian Renewal Movement. While they won local elections in about 30 cities, including Belgrade, their coalition split because of their personal squabbling.

Draskovic later joined Milosevic in the federal government, but was dismissed when he criticized the political parties of the president and his wife, Mirjana Markovic.

The Alliance for Change is trying to bring the relatively popular Draskovic back in to a more unified opposition, officials say, but Draskovic is considered unpredictable and untrustworthy by many other democrats.

The opposition is a fractious grouping. Just on Tuesday, Nebojsa Covic, who split with Milosevic to form the small Democratic Alternative party, said he could not remain within the Alliance because of "serious political differences in opinion."

While he was not more specific, Covic, like another alliance member, former army general Vuk Obradovic, sharply criticized Djindjic for fleeing to Montenegro during the war instead of remaining in Belgrade. Djindjic said he feared for his life; he has not returned to Serbia. And Covic has also criticized Obradovic for pomposity, for "thinking he was born to be a hero."

Draskovic himself ruled out cooperation with the alliance Tuesday, saying that all together, the coalition could not win much of the vote.

Draskovic, who has called for new interim governments in Serbia and Yugoslavia, early elections and a free press, said: "We are demanding very brave, very democratic changes in the country. We are demanding democratic elections." He said he was prepared "to light the flame of change" in Serbia. But it was not clear that he was willing to cooperate with anyone else to do so.

Draskovic also criticized the alliance's call for demonstrations on Saturday, saying that his party "doesn't want to call people in the streets in these difficult times." He asserted that "a political agreement among the leading parties will lead to elections."

It was a shift from his earlier statements that he would not allow Yugoslav and Serbian authorities to lead the country into "even deeper tragedy," suggesting he might resort to popular protests to prevent this. His shift Tuesday is bound to create further doubts about the depth of his opposition to Milosevic, whose power could be at risk from mass demonstrations now.

Senior officials close to Milosevic say early elections, as called for by Draskovic and the alliance, are highly unlikely.

On Sunday, the state media featured an attack on Draskovic by the ultranationalist Radical Party leader, Vojislav Seselj, for running a corrupt city administration in Belgrade. That is one form of threat, especially given the business interests of the family of Draskovic's wife, Danica.

But Draskovic's party also depends on the support of Milosevic's party to remain in power in Belgrade, one more way that Draskovic can be held in line by the regime. Running Belgrade is the prime source of money for the party, and gives Draskovic control over the city's television station, Studio B. Draskovic does not allow other democratic parties ready access to the station, using it to promote himself and his party.

In another sign that the Milosevic government will not loosen all restrictions on the press, the formerly independent radio station, B-92, Tuesday fired 17 of its original journalists.

The station was taken over by the regime in April, during the war, and ran only authorized news. The Association of Independent Electronic Media said the official explanation for the dismissals was that the employees had not turned up for work.

Veran Matic, B-92's original director who runs the association, said the former employees would press the government to restore the station to its pre-war status. "We shall not give up and allow the usurpers to falsify the history of B-92," Matic said.

The government, having broken up small demonstrations in Belgrade by Serbs fleeing Kosovo on Sunday and Monday, also sentenced two of their leaders to 30 days in jail. The Serbs were protesting what they called their abandonment by the government, which has urged them to return immediately to Kosovo and suggested that they are cowards.

Svetozar Fisic and Slobodan Karaleic, both members of the Democratic Party in Prizren, Kosovo, were sentenced to 30 days in prison for leading the demonstrations, which had not been approved in advance.

Democratic Party vice president Slobodan Vuksanovic called Tuesday for their immediate release. "Milosevic's regime, which is responsible for hundreds of thousands of Serb refugees from Croatia, Bosnia and now from Kosovo, is now arresting its latest and biggest victims," Vuksanovic said.

Tellingly, Vuksanovic said: "Milosevic is more afraid of Kosovo Serbs on the roads across Serbia than he is of the whole Serbian opposition."