Serbia Arrests 5, Calls Protesters ‘Pro-Fascist’

In a bid to intimidate the huge crowds marching daily against Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, police arrested five demonstrators Sunday and state television likened opposition leaders to Adolf Hitler.

Issuing an unusually harsh condemnation of a protest movement it has virtually ignored, television controlled by Milosevic accused demonstrators of using “pro-fascist hysteria and violence” to “introduce terrorism” onto the streets of Belgrade, the Serbian and Yugoslav capital.

The commentary was accompanied by repeated footage showing a small group of demonstrators destroying government property and a warning from police headquarters that it will no longer tolerate “illegal” acts. All of the demonstrations, technically speaking, have been illegal.

The warning and the harsh language, coupled with the first reports of arrests in the protests, appeared to signal an imminent crackdown.

Until Sunday, Milosevic had officially ignored the biggest sustained protests against his nine-year authoritarian rule. Independent media were largely gagged, and state-controlled media had given little coverage to the unrest. But as international pressure mounted--and as the largest crowd yet filled downtown Belgrade on Saturday--Milosevic apparently decided to up the ante.

Dozens of busloads of police from southern Serbia were seen moving into Belgrade on Sunday night.

Whether Milosevic actually orders police to repress the next round of marches, Sunday’s warnings chilled opposition passions.

“They are trying to nibble away” at the protest movement, said Miodrag Perisic, vice president of the opposition Democratic Party. “They see the determination of the people who come out every night, and they are trying to play on the fears of the people.”

A smaller crowd than on previous days turned out Sunday in Belgrade as the protests--which began after Milosevic annulled the opposition’s landslide victory in Nov. 17 municipal elections--entered their third week.

In an interview that occupied a third of the nightly newscast, Dragan Tomic, speaker of the Serbian parliament and a frequent proxy for Milosevic, labeled the opposition coalition Zajedno (Together) a collection of “pro-fascist groups and ideologies” that simply could not accept defeat in the elections.

“They are causing disorder, destroying the property of citizens and jeopardizing the lives of children” by using young people as pawns in the marches, Tomic said.

“You should remember when Hitler came to power,” he added. “It was the same scenario.”

A statement from the Belgrade police headquarters said officers have so far been more tolerant than they were obliged to be but that with the start of a new workweek today, citizens will expect to be able to reach their jobs safely.

“Police will apply the law completely,” the statement said.

All public demonstrations require permits. The Zajedno rallies, which have paralyzed the capital day after day, are held without permits.

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Also Sunday, opposition leaders said five demonstrators, including an official of the Belgrade branch of the Democratic Party, were rounded up by police and were being held without access to lawyers or family members.

Attorney Milojica Cvijovic said he was concerned that the men would be rushed through a quick judicial procedure that would send them to a remote prison within hours.

The charges against the men are expected to be related to vandalism and carry sentences of less than a year, Cvijovic said.

Milosevic, whose call to nationalism at the start of the decade fueled ethnic wars throughout the region, has more recently been seen by the West as a linchpin holding together the U.S.-brokered peace agreement that halted fighting in neighboring Bosnia-Herzegovina a year ago.