"Et skritt av virkelig bevegelse er mer verd enn snesevis av programmer" (K.
Marx).
Karsten Johansen
Soldiers join Serb protests at war in
Kosovo
By Anton La Guardia in Podgorica
HUNDREDS of Yugoslav soldiers fired their guns in the air in the town of
Aleksandrovac yesterday and yelled: "We are not going back to Kosovo." The
rebellion was the latest sign that anger against Slobodan Milosevic was
spreading in southern Serbia.
"The soldiers were brought by bus throughout the day," one resident of the town
said on the telephone. "They started shooting and screaming. Others were
crying. Some said they were ready to go back to fight in Kosovo." Local police
lined both sides of the main street, but did not try to intervene. A mob of
about
1,000 people was reported earlier to have come close to lynching the mayor,
Zivota Cvetkovic. He had to be saved by a company of military policemen.
The soldiers' demonstration suggests that morale in the army is crumbling after
two months of sustained Nato bombing in Kosovo and the rest of Yugoslavia.
Montenegro television said last night that many of the soldiers - most of whom
were conscripts - had deserted.
Nato sources said in Brussels that up to 1,000 Serb soldiers were reported to
have deserted their brigade in Kosovo after hearing that riot police had waded
into anti-war protesters in their home town of Krusevac. During the
demonstration on Monday about 4,000 people pelted the town hall with stones
after the mayor said there was nothing he could do. Mothers chanted: "We
want our sons, not coffins."
The outbreak of protests in Krusevac is particularly worrying for the Yugoslav
president because the city is an industrial "red town" where the former
communists are powerful and is regarded as a bastion of support for Milosevic.
Troops were reported to have prevented another demonstration there
yesterday.
But in Cacak, a city controlled by opponents of Milosevic, several hundred
people demanded the withdrawal of soldiers from Kosovo and an end to the
bombing. One speaker called for the army stop placing its tanks close to
civilian
buildings. Another speaker, Verica Barac, a member of the town council, said:
"This is not a real war. This is a personal war to keep Milosevic in power."
Two
hours after the start of the protest, some of the crowd went to church and lit
candles. More demonstrations were expected today.
The mayor, Veldimir Ilic, told The Telegraph with a nervous voice: "The
situation is very tense. The people are under huge pressure from the
government and from the bombing. But even during air raid sirens and
bombings the people are still demonstrating, staying on the streets instead of
going home. The demonstrations are growing. It started with 100 or 200 people.
But now there are about 600 or 700. People want their children to grow up in a
democratic society. They want those responsible for the war to be put on
trial."
Led by Mr Ilic, residents are said to be trying to
organise a local "people's parliament" to challenge
the Belgrade government. At first the
state-controlled media claimed that the original
demonstrations were directed against Nato.
But on Monday night the army dropped the
pretence and accused the protesters of
"undermining the defence of the country, of
committing treason and of co-operating with the
enemy". Those responsible would be tried "in
accordance with the law on the state of war", the
army said. Several people were reported to have
been arrested.
The protests may bolster the cowed opposition
groups in Yugoslavia, where any expression of
dissent is liable to be denounced as collaboration
with Nato.