YUGOSLAVIA: THUNDER BRAKES OUT OVER BELGRADE ADDING TO SENSE OF FOREBODING BEFORE ELECTIONS

Record ID: 647197

  • Title: YUGOSLAVIA: THUNDER BRAKES OUT OVER BELGRADE ADDING TO SENSE OF FOREBODING BEFORE ELECTIONS
  • Date: 23rd September 2000
  • Summary: BELGRADE, YUGOSLAVIA (SEPTEMBER 23, 2000) (REUTERS) 1. VARIOUS OF BALLOT BOXES SET IN ON OF THE POLLING STATIONS IN BELGRADE FOR ELECTIONS (4 SHOTS) 0.29 2. MV SEALED DOOR OF ONE OF THE POOLING STATIONS IN BELGRADE 0.32 3. GV STREET IN BELGRADE WITH PEOPLE WAITING AT THE BUS STOP 0.41 4. SLV AN ELECTION POSTER OF THE YUGOSLAV PRESIDENT SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC AND A POLICEMAN SITTING IN A POLICE CAR BELLOW THE POSTER 0.49 5. SLV AN ELECTORAL POSTER OF THE YUGOSLAV PRESIDENT SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC AND TO THE CANDIDATE OF THE OPPOSITION SERBIAN RENEWAL MOVEMENT VOJISLAV MIHAILOVIC 0.57 6. GV TWO ELECTORAL POSTERS OF THE YUGOSLAV PRESIDENT SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC AND THE CANDIDATE OF THE OPPOSITION SERBIAN RENEWAL MOVEMENT VOJISLAV MIHAILOVIC 1.04 7. SLV PILES OF TORN ELECTORAL POSTERS ON THE PAVEMENT 1.10 8. PAN FROM THE PILES OF TORN ELECTORAL POSTERS ON TO THE ELECTORAL POSTER OF THE DEMOCRATIC OPPOSITION BLOC CANDIDATE VOJISLAV KOSTUNICA 1.20 9. CU ELECTORAL POSTERS TORN DOWN 1.26 10. CU CLOSE UP ON AN OPPOSITION STICKER READING IN SERBIAN 'HES GONE' 1.28 11. SV A MAN READING NEWSPAPERS 1.32 12. SLV A MONUMENT ON THE MAIN SQUARE 1.42 13. SLV PEOPLE ON THE REPUBLIC SQUARE, PLACE OF A POSSIBLE GATHERING OF THE OPPOSITION SUNDAY NIGHT (SEPTEMBER 24) 1.45 14. SLV YOUNG PEOPLE ENTERING ONE OF THE CAFES IN BELGRADE 1.52 15. MV VARIOUS OF THE PEOPLE INSIDE ON OF THE BELGRADE CAFES 1.57 16. SCU SOUNDBITE (Serbian) UNIDENTIFIED YOUNG MAN SPEAKING: "I expect a little bit of good will, better mood and a new president from these elections." 2.03 17. BV/SCU SOUNDBITE (Serbian) UNIDENTIFIED YOUNG MAN PLAYING PINBALL: "Honestly speaking, I expect that it will better and that the authorities will be much better." (2 SHOTS) 2.21 18. MV MAN SELLING FLOWERS ON THE STREETS OF BELGRADE 2.28 19. GV BELGRADE (NIGHT VIEW) 2.33 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 8th October 2000 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BELGRADE YUGOSLVIA
  • City:
  • Country: Yugoslavia
  • Reuters ID: LVAAI6UDVD1K63FS6X4YUQT2E41A
  • Story Text: Thunder broke the late summer skies over Belgrade this
    week, adding to a widespread sense of foreboding before
    elections on Sunday that will decide the fate of one of the
    worlds most volatile regions.



    If the thunderclaps reminded Serbs of last years NATO
    air strikes, all the better for President Slobodan Milosevic
    who portrays his Western-backed challenger, former assistant
    law professor Vojislav Kostunica, as a NATO agent out to get
    them.

    If the weather stoked fears of an outbreak of violence,
    that is because both sides say such a prospect is already in
    the air.

    Milosevic's indictment by a U.N. war crimes tribunal last
    year for the bloodshed in Kosovo that provoked NATO's bombs
    means he is fighting for his freedom as well as political
    survival -- if he falls from power he could be jailed.

    His response has been to make clear he plans to win
    Sunday's votes -- presidential, parliamentary and local -- in
    one round
    to confirm himself as the untouchable leader of the Serbs.

    He has linked his fate with that of Yugoslav's 10 million
    people, promising enslavement to an anti-Serb West if he goes
    and pledging to defend their freedom at all costs.

    Under the banner of freedom, say posters depicting a
    statuesque Milosevic against the backdrop of a Yugoslav flag.

    Kostunica -- who gets twice as much support as Milosevic
    in opinion polls -- is depicted close-up, with the slogan 'Who
    can
    always look you in the eye?'.

    Almost all his posters have been daubed with graffiti
    saying traitor shoo or Kostunica the cat -- a reference to his
    fondness for feline pets. Serbian people consider cats as
    unfaithful, lying and cunning animals. The pro-government
    daily newspaper, Politika, has said in one of a series of
    commentaries on Kostinica that he is backed by masons and
    homosexuals and cheats on his wife.

    Every night, opposition activists dodge police to cover
    government campaign advertising with their own, but have
    refrained from defacing the government contestants.

    A huge network of activists is preparing to make its own
    vote count to prevent any repeat of the rigging of local polls
    in 1996, which the government acknowledged after three months
    of street protests.

    But one member of the student protest movement Otpor,
    which has borne the brunt of a police crackdown on dissent,
    said
    police in the southern town of Kragujevac had already been
    told to prevent the release of results by anyone but the
    government. Not only that, public disappointment with the
    fact that the 1996 election victories left power in
    Milosevic's hands, coupled with a sense of unease about
    possible violence makes it by no means clear how many people
    might come out to vote.

    Diplomats looking feverishly for signs of a shift in a
    power structure that has cost the West both political face and
    huge sums of money over the past 10 years, are divided over
    the outcome.

    Some predict a Serbian Tiananmen Square, where protesters
    are tackled with tanks. Others see demonstrations fizzling out
    and the country closing in on itself like Cuba.

    One citizen planned to keep his head down on election
    night. When asked where he will be on the night of the
    election he said that he would remain under his bed.


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