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BELGRADE, Sept 23 (AFP) - The opposition coalition Alliance for Change suffered a debacle in Belgrade on Thursday, attracting only some 3,000 people for the third rally in its campaign to oust Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.
Up to 20,000 people attended the first rally on Tuesday of what was planned to be a daily series of protest demonstrations.
But turnout fell to 5,000 for the second rally Wednesday amid signs that splintering opposition ranks and public fear of arrests were dampening the push.
On August 19, two months after the end of Serbia's military withdrawal from Kosovo, the alliance had managed to rally 150,000 people to protest Milosevic's rule.
Zoran Djindjic, head of the Democratic Party (DS), the dominant force of the Alliance, addressed the crowd, saying Milosevic would provoke a new conflict if he was not ousted.
"When we enter in a new fight, it will be too late to think about that," Djindjic said.
After the rally, protestors marched along central Belgrade streets, chanting anti-Milosevic's slogans.
The turnout at a fresh rally fell in the third-biggest Serbia's town Nis as well.
In Nis, in southern Serbia, only 5,000 people turned out for the rally on Thursday, significantly less than in the previous two days with some 20,000 people attending the protest on Tuesday, and 10,000 on Wednesday.
Protests were held in several smaller cities as well, but with a similar result.
In Kraljevo, in the south, where more than 2,500 people turned out Wednesday to vent their rage against Milosevic, less than 1,000 people took to the streets on Thursday.
In the central town of Valjevo, the turnout was up to 2,000, while in Jagodina, Vrbas and Pirot it was less than 1,000, the independent news agency Beta reported.
However, at a rally in Novi Sad, the second-biggest Serbian town and the capital of the northern province of Vojvodina, local opposition parties succeeded in attracting some 10,000 people, the same figure as in the past two days.
Zoran Djindjic, head of the Democratic Party (DS), the dominant force of the Alliance, said earlier Thursday that he expected the turnout to be bigger in the next 15 days.
"If not, it will mean that people are not ready to fight for their rights, but that is a political result as well," Djindjic told AFP before the Thursday's rallies.
"We are taking over a burden of organisation and possible failure (of the campaign), but the success depends on people's readiness to participate in it," he added.