 |  |  |
| Return to: Left History: a digital archive | Return to: Say no to imperialist wars! | Return to: NATO-Yugoslav War Internet Resources |
| | |
| Return to: Left History: a digital archive | Return to: Say no to imperialist wars! | Return to: NATO-Yugoslav War Internet Resources |
NOVI SAD, Serbia, Oct 7, 1999 -- (Reuters) Protesters in northern Serbia on Wednesday marked the 11th anniversary of the "Yogurt Revolution" which helped Slobodan Milosevic to power by lighting candles in tribute to those they said were victims of his rule.
But the demonstration in Novi Sad, part of a 16th straight day of street protests around Serbia to try to oust the president, could not obscure the fading momentum of a campaign which led to clashes with police in Belgrade last week.
Around 8,000 protesters gathered in the place where the Socialist government of the Vojvodina region resigned in October 1988 after protests during which farmers spattered an official building with yogurt.
That protest was part of a wave of mass 'anti-bureaucracy' demonstrations with strong nationalist overtones that Milosevic used to force many of his Socialist rivals from power.
A decade later, his Western-looking opponents, who blame him for the ethnic conflicts, international isolation and economic hardship that have marked his rule, are finding it hard to muster the popular muscle needed to force him out.
"We cannot escape from Milosevic because he is not human, he is pollution," opposition leader Nenad Canak told the crowd in Novi Sad, who lit a few hundred candles in front of the local government building and plastered it with "Vojvodina" stickers.
"The candles have been lit for the victims of war, victims of assassination, for stolen property, for the robbing of Vojvodina," Canak said.
Rain in Belgrade
In Belgrade, several thousand demonstrators braved heavy rain. Zoran Djindjic, one of the main organizers, put a brave face on the low turnout, saying the demonstrations, which began on September 21, had shown that change was possible.
"This is very important, because we don't want to remain a small sect which is protesting while others stand on the sidelines," he told the demonstrators.
The now-daily march, which sparked clashes with police last week, passed without incident as both police and demonstrators appeared keen to avoid clashes.
In the central city of Nis, the Alliance for Change, organizer of the rallies, cancelled a march and told some 5,000 people who turned up to "save their strength" for the next day, the independent Beta news agency reported. In the smaller towns of Cacak and Pancevo, just a few hundred turned out.
The government had already declared victory.
"The Alliance for Change's protests have only confirmed that the huge majority of our citizens are for restoration, reforms and positive changes in the country, and against the occupation of Yugoslavia as a change offered by the Alliance," Information Secretary Goran Matic told the state news agency Tanjug.
The opposition, hamstrungby infighting, hopes to be able to agree on Thursday on a set of conditions for early elections in a bid to increase pressure on Milosevic.
One opposition leader, former Yugoslav general Vuk Obradovic, said he had been summoned to appear in court on Thursday charged with defaming a government minister in one protest which featured a mock trial of the minister's effigy.