Yugoslav Rally Demands New Vote in Serbia
An estimated 20,000 anti-Communist demonstrators rallied Sunday in downtown Belgrade to demand new elections in Serbia, the largest of Yugoslavia’s six republics.
Police and some military units were placed on alert in the capital, but no clashes were reported.
Many in the crowd chanted slogans calling for the ouster of Serbia’s ruling Socialist Party--the renamed Communist Party--which overwhelmingly won the republic’s multi-party elections last December.
In speeches, opposition leaders denounced “the Serbian Bolshevik regime” and blamed the Socialists for economic woes.
“The authorities, against whose incompetence and despotism we protest today, merely produce enemies of Serbia. Not a single democracy in the world wants to talk with this regime,” opposition leader Vuk Draskovic told the emotional, flag-waving crowd.
In his speech Sunday, Draskovic called for the formation of a professional Serbian Nationalist Guard, allegedly to protect Serbs living in the other Yugoslav republics.
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