(2 Oct 2000) English/Nat
XFA
The opposition in Yugoslavia is vowing to keep the pressure on President Slobodan Milosevic until he resigns.
Truck and taxi drivers blockaded roads and bridges, students rallied in the streets and factories closed throughout Yugoslavia as opposition forces launched a drive to force Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic from office.
With the most extensive strikes ever waged against Milosevic, his foes have vowed to bring the nation to a standstill.
Opposition presidential candidate Vojislav Kostunica on Monday called Slobodan Milosevic a \"pickpocket\" and said that the country had to figure out a way to defuse the \"justified anger\" of the people.
SOUNDBITE: (Serbian)
\"Now, we are in the phase where we have to see with our citizens how to protect their votes, first acquired and then stolen by the Milosevic's regime. Also, we have to see how to defuse this justified anger of the people and normalize the situation as soon as possible. And, that somebody - whom you can only call a pickpocket, because we found his fingers in our pockets - finally returns what he has tried to steal. And of course, he will have to return it.\"
SUPER CAPTION: Vojislav Kostunica, Leader Democratic Opposition of Serbia
Meanwhile, several thousand Belgrade students marched through downtown Belgrade on Monday, joining widespread protests against what they call \"election theft.\"
The students held banners and stickers declaring, 'Finished already,' to send their message to Milosevic his time in office is over.
Protestors want President Slobodan Milosevic to concede victory to Vojislav Kostunica, who they believe won last week's presidential elections outright.
International pressure is building on Milosevic who has now rejected an offer of high-level mediation by close ally Russia.
Two senior Russian diplomats met Kostunica in Belgrade on Monday.
Vladimir Chizov and Alexander Tolkach arrived in Serbia late Saturday to assess the election crises.
The State Tanjug news agency reported Chizov visited Kosovo on Sunday and had official meetings in Belgrade the following day.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
\"And having visited Skopje, Pristina, and Podgorica, we are now in Belgrade as you may witness and we are having discussions on the current political situation with representatives of both the official authorities and with prominent political figures here in Belgrade. (Question: What was the outcome of your peace discussions? Did you talk about the elections?) We discussed the current situation which includes of course the issue of elections.\"
SUPER CAPTION: Vladimir Chizov, Russian diplomat
In Belgrade on Monday a non governmental organisation of economists known as G17 demonstrated outside the Federal Bureau of statistics, demanding the official election data.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
\"I don't expect that they will give us the data because formally we heard from those people at statistical federal bureau that justice is on our side so they are afraid to provide us with data. We simply ask for data because this is official, this should be public - in all countries election datas are public. We are asking for data to compare their datas with the Democratic Opposition of Serbia and everything will be very clear.\"
SUPER CAPTION: Mladen Djinkic, Economist, Member of independent group of G-17 economists
Less than a week remains before Sunday's scheduled run-off elections.
Milosevic says challenger Vojislav Kostunica failed to achieve an outright victory in the September 24th elections and a second round is needed.
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