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BELGRADE, Oct 6, 1999 -- An opposition campaign to oust Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic appeared to be running out of steam on Tuesday, with only a few thousand protesters joining a march in Belgrade on the 15th consecutive day of unrest.
Police kept a lower profile than in previous days, although a cordon of riot police forced the marchers to change direction.
After the march, a rally was held in the capital's Republic Square, where opposition leaders made speeches calling for the resignation of Milosevic, whom they blame for increased hardship and international isolation after a decade of Balkan wars.
"For ten years we have been walking and walking and getting nowhere," opposition activist Zoran Popovic told the crowd. "This time we have to go to the end."
Last Wednesday and Thursday, riot police beat dozens of protesters with batons. In recent days, however, police have seemed to tolerate the marches as long as they stay within a limited area of the city center.
"Who knows what they're thinking? Why you can turn left and not go right is beyond me," said Vladan Batic, coordinator of the Alliance for Change umbrella group organizing the rallies.
The Alliance launched the latest push to force Milosevic to quit on September 21 and has vowed to go on for as long as is necessary. But its leaders admit that many more people must take to the streets for the campaign to succeed.
So far, the highest turnout in Belgrade has been about 50,000 people.
Analysts say many people are reluctant to join the rallies because of disillusion and widespread disenchantment with the divided opposition. Others say they fear for their jobs or of getting involved in clashes with police.
Elsewhere in Serbia, the independent Beta news agency said about 5,000 turned out both in the northern town of Novi Sad and in Nis in the south - Serbia's second and third largest cities respectively.
Earlier on Tuesday, around 400 employees at the Zastava Namenska weapons plant in the central town of Kragujevac staged a rally to demand higher wages as well as Milosevic's resignation.
"We have invited all those who are hungry or dissatisfied to support us," said Zoran Nedeljkovic, the head of a local independent trade union.
"We are gathered here because of the problems created by those who do not want to change anything," he told Reuters.
More than a third of the town's residents depend on Zastava, which also produces cars and trucks. Zastava's plants were heavily damaged during NATO's 11-week NATO air campaign against Yugoslavia, which ended in June.
Kragujevac, 90 miles (150 kilometers) south of Belgrade, is an opposition stronghold and on Monday evening about 25,000 people attended the evening rally.