- Title: YUGOSLAVIA: 20 000 RALLY AGAINST THE GOVERNMENT
- Date: 9th March 1996
- Summary: BELGRADE, YUGOSLAVIA (MARCH 9, 1996/FILE) (AGENCY POOL - AVAILABLE ALL) 1. TOP VIEW ANTI-GOVERNMENT CROWD GATHERED IN SQUARE 0.05 2. SV PEOPLE IN CROWD WAVING FLAGS AND BANNERS (2 SHOTS) 0.13 3. SV BANNER READING "SERBIA IN EUROPE, EUROPE IN SERBIA" 0.15 4. SV SERBIAN RENEWAL MOVEMENT (SPO) LEADER VUK DRASKOVIC ARRIVING, M
- Embargoed: 24th March 1996 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: BELGRADE, YUGOSLAVIA
- City:
- Country: Yugoslavia
- Reuters ID: LVA1YS7E83KKLQJBH8E4KLH13DZO
- Story Text: Some 20,000 people rallied in the centre of Belgrade against the government of Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic on Saturday (March 9), 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. They also accused him of wrecking Serbia's economy, which has been devastated by United Nations (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." The rally adopted a ten-point programme including calls for a single list of opposition election candidates, privatisation of the economy and an end to political control of the media.
Police maintained a low profile around the rally, a pale shadow of one in 1991, when tanks and troops put down protests by more than 100,000 people and two people were killed.
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