500 Protesters Have a Lower View of Event : Demonstrations: They are kept behind police barricades at the bottom of the hill. Activists assail policies on civil rights, AIDS and Croatia.

While former President Ronald Reagan welcomed a slew of celebrities to dedication ceremonies for his $57-million hilltop library Monday, bands of angry demonstrators stationed at the bottom of the hill protested the policies of current and former chief executives.

Metal barricades and orange police sawhorses were set up along Madera Road leading to the library, keeping two groups totaling more than 500 demonstrators at least a mile from the library’s entrance. Most were calling for Croatian independence, but the most vocal expressed outrage at Reagan’s and President Bush’s policies on AIDS and women’s rights. No arrests or major disturbances were reported.

The majority had gathered at the intersection of Madera Road and Royal Avenue, which most invited guests had to pass. Demonstrators chanted, whistled and waved protest signs--including one reading “Reagan Can’t Remember, History Won’t Forget”--at guests who stayed concealed behind the tinted windows of stretch limousines.

While speaker after speaker lauded Reagan at the hilltop dedication, activists were excoriating him below, taking advantage of the media blitz to denounce Reagan, Bush and Gov. Pete Wilson for their stands on civil rights issues.

“We’re here to remind people who Ronald Reagan really is,” said Simi Valley resident Mary Baird, one of about a dozen National Organization for Women members there. “We feel that place up there is more of a fantasyland than a library.”

Baird, holding a “Keep Abortion Legal” sign, added: “People are forgetting what has happened to us in the past decade. Women are losing their reproductive rights. Minorities are losing their civil rights. All those things started with Reagan.”

Fellow Simi Valley resident Linda Jordan, whose placard read, “Just Say No to the Ronald Reagan Propaganda Library,” said: “I’m ashamed to have it here.”

About 200 gay rights protesters from ACT UP/LA and Queer Nation arrived blowing whistles and carrying cardboard tombstones and foam skulls to symbolize those who have died of AIDS. They said Reagan showed little concern or leadership when AIDS surfaced in the early 1980s.

George Dillon, who drove from Santa Barbara to take part, said that 120,000 people have died from the disease, and “it took him 5 1/2 years just to say the word AIDS . He was more concerned with the Evil Empire than his own people.”

“As much money as they spent on this library, Reagan could have definitely saved a few thousand lives,” said Pete Jimenez of Los Angeles.

About 300 Croats, the largest contingent of demonstrators, directed their energies toward Bush, calling on him to recognize Croatia’s independence from the Yugoslav federation.

“We want democracy in our country,” said Frane Jerkovic, who arrived by chartered bus from Los Angeles about 8 a.m. “The only thing we want from Bush is to recognize Croatia and say we are for democracy. We need support.”

Despite their disappointment with Bush, many Croats said that they are big supporters of Reagan because of his anti-communist stance.

“Reagan didn’t mess around,” Mladen Buntich said. “He was a great freedom-fighting President. He called a spade a spade. I think he will go down as one of the greatest presidents.”

Croatian demonstrators were allowed to press up to the barricades but gay rights protesters were kept back by police. In one tense moment, police in riot helmets faced off with gay rights protesters who tried to march up to the police barricade.

But they stopped about 50 feet back and chanted, “Bad Cops, No Doughnuts” several times before turning around.

Times staff writer Larry Speer contributed to this story.