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BELGRADE, Sept 24 (AFP) - Yugoslav opposition groups have been left licking their wounds and wondering what to do next following their failure to ignite mass-scale public protests against President Slobodan Milosevic.
After poor participation in the rallies, particularly in Belgrade, opposition leader Zoran Djindjic said the Alliance would reconsider the future of the movement.
Change is needed in Serbia before year's end, but "we can't do it alone, without the people," Djindjic told AFP.
On the third day of its campaign to oust Milosevic, the Alliance suffered a devastating blow in Belgrade, only rallying 3,000 protesters Thursday, in a capital of two million people.
In provincial cities, the turnout has been better but is already decreasing. In total, including Belgrade, less then 30,000 people responded to the Alliance's rally call Thursday, according to several estimates. Serbia, which is joined with the much smaller Montenegro in the Yugoslav federation, has a population of 10 million.
The Alliance for Change, dominated by Djindjic's Democratic Party (DS), is far from reaching its stated goals.
The Alliance, joined by another smaller coalition, the Alliance of Democratic Parties, called upon Serbs to demonstrate every day until Milosevic resigned.
If this goal were met, the group supported the creation of a transition government that would organize free elections.
On the eve of the protest launch, Djindjic predicted that the movement would grow rapidly with meetings in 16 cities the first day, in 35 cities the second day and in 50 cities the third day. The opposite occurred: participation waned and demonstrations took place in only 15 cities Thursday.
The Alliance's entire strategy is now in question. Since the movement took shape against Milosevic three months ago, at the end of the fighting in Kosovo and the NATO bombing campaign, the Alliance insists that only a mass protest movement can force Milosevic to leave power.
"He will only go if two million Serbs gather in the streets," Djindjic said in August.
Since Thursday, Djindjic confronted the possibility of a setback. "We thought it would take time for the movement to gather strength before things got any worse," he said. "If the movement doesn't take off, it will mean that people are not ready to fight for their rights."
"We are taking over a burden of organisation and possible failure (of the campaign), but its success depends on people's readiness to participate in it," he added.
Djindjic's rival, Vuk Draskovic, leader of the Serbian Renewal Movement, has said for weeks that protests are useless and that the only way to topple Milosevic is through elections. He said Thursday the Alliance's strategy was "completely inappropriate."
The coalition government and official media outlets highlighted the poor turnout at the Alliance's rallies. They treated the movement with disdain, accusing it of being paid by NATO and the United States to destroy the country.
Ultra-nationalist Vojislav Seselj, Serbia's deputy prime minister, called the Alliance's leaders "laughable."
"The role of the alliance is not necessarily negative, because it gives the Serbs a diversion," he said.