By Vesna Peric Zimonjic
BELGRADE, Dec 30 1996 (IPS)

Violence has become a major factor in the daily anti-government protests staged in this capital and other cities for over a month.

But the opposition coalition Zajedno (Together), says its actions will continue until Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic acknowledges its victory in municipal elections held last month in 15 of the 18 biggest towns in Serbia.

Police violence against protesters and government efforts to curb the protests will not result in any change in strategy, Zajedno leaders said on the weekend.

They spoke amid reports that more than 70 people were taken to Belgrade medical centre after being severely beaten by police. Among them were foreign TV cameramen, video operators, local independent media reporters — from Radio B92 and Nasa Borba — together with several parents who attended rallies with their 10 or 12 year old children.

A Zajedno sympathizer shot in head last Tuesday during clashes between supporters of the government and opposition demonstrators is in coma. Another man died after he was allegedly beaten by government sympathizers on the same day.

Thousands of special police forces are now being deployed in central Belgrade every afternoon ahead of Zajedno rallies. And regular Police units are regularly deployed in several provincial towns of Serbia where Zajedno supporters have been holding protests for almost six weeks now.

Most of the observers in Serbia agree that the situation remains tense with neither side willing to give up.

Zajedno said Milosevic was trying to set up “a state of emergency and police state”. Contingents of police were being mobilised in Serbia, a Zajedno statement said, adding: “How many times does Milosevic plan to use police cordons to prevent Serbian citizens from living normally ?”

The statement promised that protests would be staged on New Year’s eve, on Serb Christmas eve and Serb New Year eve (the Orthodox Church dates on January 6 and 13).

“We are sure that no force can prevent free people from expressing their will. The dictatorship cannot survive in Serbia,” said the Zajedno statement.

Vuk Draskovic, one of the leaders of Zajedno, accused the police of being responsible for killing Predrag Starcevic (39), a demonstrator who died last Tuesday allegedly after scuffles with supporters of the regime. His death was kept a secret for two days by medical authorities.

“According to information we possess, he was killed by the police,” Draskovic said during Sunday’s anti-government demonstration attended by 50,000 people in central Belgrade, at the temperature of minus 12 C.

Starcevic was buried in Belgrade on Saturday, at a funeral attended by tens of thousands of people, including opposition leaders. No Zajedno rally was held that day.

Zajedno also announced on Sunday that its protests will be suspended on Dec. 31. It has invited supporters to celebrate the New Year at a function to be attended by dozens of prominent Serbian actors, opera singers and rock bands. Zajedno invited people to bring candles and alarm clocks.

Also on Sunday the opposition claimed several army units had openly expressed criticism of Milosevic for the first time since the protests began.

“If it must be, we will put ourselves at the head of the Serbian people to make the truth triumph,” said a statement allegedly issued by military units. The statement was read out over a private television station in Serbia’s second town, Nis by a representative of the Democratic Party — one of the members of the Zajedno coalition.

About a dozen army units, including the elite 63rd parachute brigade, were associated with the statement, the party said. They added that they were prepared to intervene in the political crisis — triggered by the authorities’ refusal to accept opposition wins in municipal elections last month — to avert “the ruin of Serbia.”

Meantime, the opposition was buoyed over the weekend when an international fact-finding mission backed their claims that the November election results were rigged by Serbian authorities. A team from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said the opposition was the true winner in 14 Serbian towns and cities.

Headed by former Spanish prime minister Felipe Gonzalez, the OSCE mission concluded that the anti-Milosevic Zajedno coalition fairly won the local polls in 13 key disputed provincial centres as well as in Belgrade. Gonzalez told a news conference in Geneva that the reasons given by Serbian courts for annulling the opposition victories were based on arguments “that no democratic country could have accepted.”

The report also said there was no question that Milosevic’s own alliance won an overall majority of votes in the elections and triumphed in all but the contested areas.

While Serbian opposition welcomed the findings of OSCE mission, official Belgrade tried to play down the report. Yugoslav Foreign Minister Milan Milutinovic said OSCE findings were “well intended and constructive,” without mentioning its recommendation that opposition victories should be restored.

Milutinovic seized on the part of the OSCE report which said the polling had been well organised. “The report confirms that the elections were held in the most regular manner and that the majority of people were able to express their voice,” he said, adding that the document would be handed to electoral institutions for review.

Dragan Tomic, Serbia’s parliament speaker, told the official news agency Tanjug that the OSCE report was only “a preliminary one”. Nikola Sainovic, Yugoslav deputy prime minister, said: “What our institutions establish as a definitive result will be definitive, and will have nothing to do with estimates from outside.”

Zoran Djindjic, one of Zajedno leaders, praised OSCE findings, but added: “We do not expect him (Milosevic) to accept the findings of OSCE commission. We expect further escalation, aggravation of this political crisis. If Milosevic refuses (the report), he will bring discredit on our country and worsen the political crisis.”

In the meantime, tiny Montenegro, junior partner of Serbia in the Yugoslav federation, said Belgrade must “resolve as soon as possible this problem, by respecting (Serbia’s) independence, constitutional system and institutions so that we do not all bear the negative consequences”.

Momir Bulatovic, president of Montenegro, speaking on central Montenegrine TV, said Montenegro “was feeling the economic and political fallout from political deadlock in Serbia”.

Ivan Torov of the magazine Nasa Borba said: “Milosevic is left now with a choice of resorting to further violence or giving up his position. The authorities bear the sole responsibility for narrowing the gap that could have led to the compromise. With every passing day, the gap is narrower and narrower.”

And foreign relations analyst Ljubivoje Acimovic said: “If Yugoslavia rejects OSCE recommendations, then political pressure on Yugoslavia will ensue (by economic means). The West has suggested to Belgrade to address the OSCE as a way of coming out of a blind alley. The West has an interest in saving Yugoslavia, to put circumstances in this region in order.”

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