(7 Dec 1996) Serbo-Croat/Nat
More than 150-thousand people gathered in Belgrade on Saturday evening to hear speeches from opposition leaders at the end of the 19th consecutive day of anti- government protests.
The crowd's anger at President Slobodan Milosevic's decision to override recent election results was not diminished despite their weeks of protest and they whistled and booed at the very mention of his name.
The Serbian Supreme Court is expected to announce a decision soon on whether or not the election results will be overruled.
Earlier in the day, thousands of students gathered in Novi Sad to support the nationwide protests and they threw banana skins at the offices of a state-run newspaper.
The Serbian capital of Belgrade has seen no let up in the daily demonstrations against President Slobodan Milosevic.
Support for the opposition leaders grows with every street protest and even late into the evening they are able to draw massive crowds to hear them speak out against Milosevic's leadership.
They are determined to see Milosevic's ruling overturned. A decision is expected soon from the Supreme Court.
Many would even like to see Slobodan Milosevic toppled from power.
And the Serbian leader is beginning to feel the pressure at home and abroad announcing that the police and army would not intervene against protestors.
The opposition coalition is known as "Together" and just as the name suggests its leaders are calling for unity among all the Serbian people.
SOUNDBITE: (Serbo-Croat)
"That's what we want, a government who consult the people. If we want a Serbia like that then we need the people who were never consulted and voted for the socialists. These people are also our brothers and neighbours. They love Serbia the same way that we do and we don't whistle at them, we whistle at their leaders. And they (the leaders) are in a minority."
SUPER CAPTION: Zoran Djindjic, Opposition leader
One of the main strategy's of the anti-government campaign, so far, has been to only use peaceful methods of protest.
And opposition leaders have jumped on the warlike rhetoric of the governing socialists to drive home their message that President Milosevic and his key allies don't have the people's interests at heart.
SOUNDBITE: (Serbo-Croat)
"They defend communism here and yet they want to finance terrorism campaigns or civil war. You have read about men who have no rights to be artists or directors, yet there is this man (refers to a newspaper editor) who at the end of the 20th century, called on the left party to stupidly take up arms and fight just like the Bolsheviks with the Chetniks."
SUPERCAPTION: Vuk Draskovic, Opposition leader
Earlier in the day, to the north of the capital, students of the Novi Sad University joined in nationwide demonstrations against the rule of Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic.
His government is refusing to recognise the results of municipal elections last month which were won by the opposition.
The opposition coalition claimed to have won control of 15 of Serbia's 18 largest towns in the polls including Belgrade.
The demands of these students were simple: democracy and freedom of the media.
When they finally arrived in front of the building of the state-controlled newspaper "Dnevnik", they began to bombard it with banana skins in protest at what they say is the newspaper's biased reporting .
Symbolic gestures are popular in these protests - earlier in the day in Belgrade the huge crowd gathered outside the offices of the state run Tanjug news agency.
Find out more about AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
Twitter: [ Ссылка ]
Facebook: [ Ссылка ]
Instagram: [ Ссылка ]
You can license this story through AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
