Foreign Agencies on December 13th, 1996

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP)
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Tens of thousands of students continued their daily protests Friday by marching through the city. On Thursday, police prevented them from walking to Milosevic's home.
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Copyright 1996, The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
(c) 1996 Cable News Network, Inc.

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP)
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Tens of thousands of students continued their daily protests Friday by marching through Belgrade, the capital of the republic of Serbia which makes up most of postwar Yugoslavia.
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(c) Copyright 1996 The Associated Press

Wall Street Journal
December 13, 1996
Milosevic's Stranglehold On Serbia
By BRANISLAV MILOSEVIC

BELGRADE
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Unless a general strike develops--or the West takes more concrete measures to pressure Mr. Milosevic--it appears that the Serbian president will continue to solidify his position. After Mr. Milosevic's postelection coup, Serbia remains one of the last post-Communist islands in Europe. Students in Belgrade have wittily described this paradox in one of their placards: "We are not Cuba, but we have our Castro."

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Mr. Milosevic, no relation to the president, is a columnist for Nasa Borba, an independent daily in Belgrade.

Copyright c 1996 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Balkans: Milosevic opts for insidious tactics. They include arrests, economic pressures and smear efforts.

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia--For the past eight days, Branislav Gojkovic has had some uninvited guests visiting his popular bookstore, Plato's.

The dreaded financial police--inspectors who on a whim can fine a businessman thousands of dollars, or shut him down altogether--arrived soon after Gojkovic lent space and loudspeakers to students for their daily, high-decibel protests against President Slobodan Milosevic.

Since almost all business in Belgrade is conducted under murky circumstances, it seems clear to people here that Gojkovic was singled out not for his bookkeeping practices but because of his support for the opposition.

On Thursday, as students prepared to launch yet another rally outside Plato's, the owner apparently bowed to the pressure and took back his loudspeakers.

Despite tough talk from some government officials who are urging an all-out crackdown, Milosevic is instead pursuing a more insidious campaign to intimidate and discredit opponents who have been marching through city streets for 25 days to demand recognition of elections they won. He has opted for: selective arrests and beatings; economic pressures and incentives; a media smear campaign; and the establishment of parallel, "loyal" organizations to detract from those in rebellion.

The threat of force is always there, of course--on Thursday, scores of heavily armed riot police blocked thousands of students who attempted to march to Milosevic's home. No clashes were reported.

Whether the intimidation is physical, economic or psychological, a little goes a long way in a country yet to emerge from decades of communism, paranoia and apathy.
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Copyright Los Angeles Times

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP)
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Earlier Friday, tens of thousands of students marched through Belgrade. In solidarity, about 250 students from the northern town of Novi Sad began a 50-mile walk to the capital.
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(c) Copyright 1996 The Associated Press

BELGRADE (Reuter)
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Some 30,000 Belgrade students staged a record 12-mile march across the city on Friday which slowly rallied in support of the opposition.

Passing through New Belgrade, inhabited mainly by army officers and pensioners who are traditional Milosevic supporters, hundreds flashed lights in their homes in greeting.

More worrysome for Milosevic, soldiers in the Yugoslav army headquarters waved as the column passed by.
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(c) Reuters Ltd. All rights reserved.

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