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BELGRADE, Yugoslavia -- Leaders of the Serbian opposition to Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic found themselves criticized on two fronts Monday. They angered the European Union by boycotting a meeting to protest its demand to extradite Milosevic to face war crimes charges, while Milosevic himself called them cowards, sycophants and traitors.
The opposition, already facing dwindling turnouts at its nightly rallies, is used to harsh criticism from the Milosevic government. But some opposition leaders said privately Monday night that they were upset that the European Union had put them in such a difficult political position by demanding that they support a resolution that would call for the extradition of Milosevic, who has been indicted on war crimes charges.
The opposition leaders say they want to concentrate on trying to oust Milosevic rather than being asked to hand him over like a war trophy to the countries that bombed Serbia less than six months ago.
``There is no need for the Hague tribunal issue to be imposed as a priority,'' said a leader of the Alliance for Change, Vladan Batic. ``This nation still cares about its national identity. Milosevic should be tried in Serbia.''
But discussions with European Union diplomats in Belgrade on Sunday night did not achieve an acceptable compromise, so leaders of the main Serbian opposition parties refused to go to a meeting Monday in Luxembourg. Officials from Serbia's sister republic, Montenegro, attended, as did Vuk Obradovic, head of the small opposition Social Democracy Party, and Nenad Canak, who runs an opposition party in Vojvodina, the northern province of Serbia.
In Luxembourg, European Union foreign ministers hoped to make ``a new beginning'' with Serbia by providing about $5 million in heating oil, despite U.S. reservations. The first shipment would be to two opposition-run towns in southern Serbia, Nis and Pirot.
The idea of this ``Energy for Democracy'' program is to try to show Serbs that the West is opposed to the Milosevic government but not to ordinary citizens, who face a very cold winter with few resources.
The Clinton administration fears, though, that Milosevic will siphon off the aid or claim credit for it. Privately, some U.S. officials say a cold and hungry population is more likely to try to overthrow Milosevic, which remains the United States' top policy goal in the region.
But European leaders think that the U.S. approach is too crude and that the faltering opposition needs to show voters that it can provide the fuel and food they need with Western support -- benefits that the isolated Milosevic cannot match.
Opposition leaders helped come up with the Energy for Democracy plan to demonstrate that they are likely to be able to deliver prosperity if Milosevic is removed from power. The opposition favors a wider lifting of sanctions against Yugoslavia, arguing that Milosevic uses them as an alibi for the increasing poverty and desperation of ordinary life.
That is what Milosevic did Monday in a rare speech in Leskovac, as he presided over the reopening of a railway station on a line badly damaged by NATO airstrikes.
``Everything in the last decade was refugees, sanctions, earthquakes and floods,'' Milosevic said in a speech shown often on Monday on national television. ``Still, we remained on our feet and showed the whole world how to defend the fatherland, how the country can be defended and rebuilt.''
His government has contrasted its efforts to reconstruct the country with the rallies by the opposition, which state media call ``the Alliance for NATO.''
``These people are mainly cowards, blackmailers and sycophants,'' Milosevic said. ``They do not take part in the reconstruction, but, with rocks in their hands and with words they learned in the offices of our murderers, threaten to destroy what we have defended from NATO.''