Foreign Agencies on December 2nd, 1996

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) -- Defying a government warning, tens of thousands of people demonstrated against Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic Monday during a snowstorm and said they'll face down his powerful police if necessary.

About 10,000 students -- some carrying flowers -- marched in downtown Belgrade despite the wintry weather, then later in the day 60,000 people jeered and pelted government buildings with snowballs.

The protests, the largest and most sustained ever against the Serbian leader, have become daily events since a court two weeks ago annulled opposition victories in local elections.

The crowd chanted, ``Let's go, all-out attack! Red bandits! Thieves!'' in front of government buildings. Monday's protesters also bombarded the state-run Borba publishing house, a Milosevic mouthpiece, with snowballs.
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Authorities have tolerated the demonstrations. But the speaker of the Serbian parliament said Sunday that a crackdown may be coming against the protests, which he called a ``pro-fascist rampage.''

Monday's protest featured students carrying signs saying ``We are not fascists.''
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The protesting students sent an open letter to the police saying ``we don't want violence. Words are our only weapon.''
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In recent years, hundreds of thousands of young, well-educated people have left Serbia, either because they did not want to join the army or to seek better opportunities elsewhere.

The current generation of students appears to have fewer options, and seems more determined to fight Milosevic.

Copyright 1996 The Associated Press

THE REVOLUTION IN SERBIA BEGINS WITH A HOMEPAGE ON INTERNET

Even revolutions aren't what they used to be, since there is internet. The times of illegal printing-presses in wet cellars, seditious pamphlets spread by revolutionaries in duffle coats, are over. The students of Belgrade University agitate per homepage (http://www.galeb.etf.bg.ac.yu/~protest96) against the Serbian president Milosevic.
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Via the world wide web students of the faculty of electro-technics try to break the media-blocking. The symbol of their homepage is an egg, which is the most beloved weapon of the students. On the homepage are shown pictures of the demonstrations, which should show ignorant Serbia how numerous the demonstrators are, a report on the egg bombardment, the next-days program and a list of demands.

From the whole world they receive solidarity e-mails, even from countries with whom Serbia was recently in war. Canada wishes 'Courage and Strength', New-Zealand 'stays with heard and soul on your side'. 'Fight for your right' encourages the United States.

Former Serbs, lots of them emigrated to far-away countries after the break-down of the students protest five years ago, admit that they think it's a shame they can't throw a few eggs themselves.

With over two-thousand hits on the first day of it's existence the protest-homepage is a success. The Belgrade students are even listed on the CNN-homepage.

On second thoughts the homepage opens the door to an unsuspected network of subversive sites full of information about anti-Milosevic demonstrations: weekly papers, newspapers and civil-groups, which are muzzled by the regime, have found an opportunity to escape to the Internet.

But probably most readers of the protest-homepage live abroad. In Serbia a vulgar computer already fulfil people with respect and fear, let alone that they know what internet is. The students, full of revolutionary fire, say that every stone they can scull from the wall, build by the authorities to stop information, is one.

BELGRADE (Reuter) - Fifty thousand students and opposition supporters demonstrated against Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic on Monday as international protests grew against his threats to quell street unrest with force.

Demonstrators marched through central Belgrade in a snow storm, taunting police deployed in small numbers despite an official warning that security forces would be less tolerant of anti-government protests that have lasted more than two weeks.
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A line of girls led Monday's demonstration, handing carnations to policemen along the march route. One policeman accepted the flower and stuck it in his flak jacket but most, watched by vigilant officers, refused.

The students blew trumpets and waved football rattles to create maximum uproar as they weaved through the city gathering support.

"They teach us to think for ourselves at university but now Slobo and his mates expect us to switch off our brains when they speak," a philosophy student said. "Only a five-year-old would be fooled by this."
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Zajedno and student leaders have stopped the stoning of state television and newspaper buildings that marred earlier protests in order to deprive police of any excuse to intervene.

Police said they had arrested 23 people for causing damage or disruption since the demonstrations began.

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