YUGOSLAVIA: ANTI MILOSEVIC PROTESTS AND BLOCKADES CONTINUE BUT BELGADE BLOCKADE FAILS TO SHUT DOWN THE CAPITAL

Record ID: 636810

  • Title: YUGOSLAVIA: ANTI MILOSEVIC PROTESTS AND BLOCKADES CONTINUE BUT BELGADE BLOCKADE FAILS TO SHUT DOWN THE CAPITAL
  • Date: 2nd October 2000
  • Summary: BELGRADE, YUGOSLAVIA (OCTOBER 2, 2000) (REUTERS) WIDE OF BUSES AND VEHICLES ON THE BLOCKADE ON THE BRANKOV BRIDGE SMV VEHICLES WITH PROTEST FLAGS BLOCKADING BRIDGE (2 SHOTS) WIDE OF BUSES ON ROAD WIDE OF TAXI DRIVERS BLOCKING ONE OF THE MAIN INTERSECTIONS IN BELGRADE VARIOUS. WOMAN STANDING BY ROAD WAVING DOS FLAG (2 SHOTS) WIDE OF CARS BLOCKADING THE ROAD WIDE OF PEOPLE STANDING ON THE SQUARE IN THE ZEMUN DISTRICT BLOWING WHISTLES IN PROTEST VARIOUS, BUSES LINED UP IN THE ZEMUN DISTRICT (2 SHOTS) BELGRADE, YUGOSLAVIA (OCTOBER 2, 2000) (REUTERS) SLV HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS PROTESTING TRYING TO BLOCK ROAD WITH RUBBISH /GARBAGE BINS VARIOUS, STUDENTS MARCHING IN PROTEST (4 SHOTS) SMV/SLV POLICE OFFICER WATCHING STUDENTS (2 SHOTS) VARIOUS OF HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS PROTEST MARCH BLOWING WHISTLES (3 SHOTS) PANCEVO, YUGOSLAVIA (OCTOBER 2, 2000)(REUTERS) WIDE OF THE BLOCKADE ACROSS THE MAIN STREET LEADING TO PANCEVO VARIOUS, TRUCKS AND LORRIES IN BLOCKADE (2 SHOTS) SMV LORRY PARKED ACROSS STREET SMV DRIVERS STANDING IN ROAD WIDE OF BLOCKADE WIDE OF THE PETROCHEMICAL PLANT IN PANCEVO/ PAN TO WORKERS DEMONSTRATING (2 SHOTS) SMV OF WORKERS STANDING IN FRONT OF THE PETROCHEMICAL PLANT WITH POSTER READING IN SERBIAN: "HE IS GONE" SCU (SOUNDBITE)(Serbian) UNIDENTIFIED WORKER SAYING: "Workers from the petrochemical plant join in the civil disobedience campaign and general strike around Serbia." VARIOUS OF THE PETROCHEMICAL PLANT (2 SHOTS) SLV PROTESTORS SLV CLOSED GATE
  • Embargoed: 17th October 2000 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BELGRADE AND PANCEVO, YUGOSLAVIA
  • Country: Serbia
  • Topics: General,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAA0JF8SOU49JLSDTQ0UFKARDYM
  • Story Text: A wave of protest against President Slobodan Milosevic
    is rolling across Yugoslavia, scoring notable successes in
    some areas but so far failing to shut down the capital
    Belgrade.

    Yugoslavia's opposition leader has criticised both Russia
    and the United States, accusing Moscow of indecision and
    Washington of indirectly helping Milosevic's cause.



    In Serbia, protesters on Monday (October 2) blocked
    roads, miners staged strikes and children skipped school in
    support of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's election
    challenger Vojislav Kostunica.

    Protests brought a string of towns to a halt, but failed
    to make much impact on key state institutions in the capital,
    where sporadic road blockades lasted just a few hours.

    In Belgrade, most shops opened, major state institutions
    were unaffected and by late morning the city was almost back
    to normal.

    It was a far cry from the total paralysis which opposition
    leaders had called for at the weekend.

    They had urged a general strike in a bid to force
    Milosevic to concede that Kostunica won outright victory in
    the first round of presidential elections on September 24.

    The state electoral committee ruled last week that his
    share of the vote fell just short of 50 per cent and ordered a
    runoff next Sunday, which the opposition says it will boycott.

    The most serious protests, at coal mines serving Serbia's
    two largest thermal power plants, threatened to plunge large
    parts of the country into darkness.

    At a news conference later in the day, Kostunica slammed
    Russia and the United States, accusing Moscow of indecision
    and Washington of indirectly helping Milosevic's cause.

    He said the Russians, who have offered to mediate but
    issued ambiguous statements, had not made up their minds what
    to do.

    "The Russian policy has so far been indecisive and
    reluctant, I would say unnecessarily so. It could be described
    as taking one step forward and one step back," Kostunica said.

    "The Russians don't have a specific and concrete position
    on the situation in Yugoslavia," he added.

    He also said the United States had helped to turn the
    presidential election into a matter of survival for Milosevic
    by insisting he stand trial for war crimes before a U.N.

    tribunal.

    "The policy of the current U.S. authorities, whether they
    praise Milosevic as they have in the past or threaten him with
    The Hague tribunal as they are doing now, actually supports
    him but I think this support will be short-lived," Kostunica
    said.

    "In fact, it could be a matter of life and death for some
    figures of the current U.S. administration," he added of
    Washington's apparent determination to oust Milosevic before
    the U.S. presidential election.
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