Court Deals Blow to Serb Protesters

In a major setback, opposition forces said Sunday that Serbia’s highest court has again turned aside their legal challenge to President Slobodan Milosevic and decided to let stand alleged election fraud.

Opposition leaders vowed to widen their fight to unseat Milosevic following the ruling, which has not been announced officially by Serbia’s Supreme Court. The Belgrade Electoral Commission, which had filed a similar challenge to Milosevic’s annulment of last month’s municipal elections won by the opposition, announced late Sunday that its appeal had also been rejected.

Politicians and students staging their 21st day of street demonstrations said they were not surprised that the court had sided with the Serbian president, and they pronounced themselves more determined than ever to see an end to his authoritarian regime.

“We want the protests to spread to as many cities in Serbia as possible,” said Zoran Djindjic, president of the opposition Democratic Party. “This is an enormous investment in the future. Never before has there been a single unified protest in 20 towns in Serbia. Never before have we attracted so much international attention.”

Also Sunday, opposition sources reported the arrest and alleged torture of a student who had hoisted an effigy of Milosevic, wearing jailbird stripes, in the demonstrations. The 21-year-old man, Dejan Bulatovic, was stripped and then beaten with clubs and kicked by police, said his mother, Ljiljana. They placed a rifle in his mouth and threatened to kill him, she said after visiting her son.

Bulatovic was sentenced to 25 days in prison for what amounts to disorderly conduct, opposition officials said.

About 42 protesters have been arrested, according to opposition lawyers, but there had been no reports of abuse until now. Several of the arrested were held incommunicado, the lawyers said.

On Sunday, the effigy sat slumped in the corner of the headquarters of the Zajedno (Together) opposition coalition as thousands of demonstrators rallied outside.

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Milosevic and officials of his Socialist Party have told Western officials that they will not use force to break up the demonstrations. But Milosevic has used tactics both subtle and overt to intimidate and undermine the opposition.

State-run television, which routinely broadcasts interviews of residents complaining about how the protests disrupt traffic, resumed its tough talk Sunday night, accusing Zajedno leaders of subversive attempts to destabilize the nation and mislead the people.

“All of this is obviously a big farce intended for the foreign media,” state television said. “They have finally shown their hand and have proven that their aim is to destabilize Serbia [and] to compromise it before the world.”

Milosevic is also seeking scapegoats in an effort to defuse the most sustained challenge to his authority he has ever faced. He has fired officials in his party whose titles seem important but who really have little power, and he has tried to use the courts for cover.

Although the courts are widely considered to be under Milosevic’s control, some diplomats and Serbian analysts had thought the appeals procedure would provide Milosevic with a face-saving way out of the crisis. This is the second time the Supreme Court has rejected an opposition appeal and upheld Milosevic’s annulment of the Nov. 17 elections.

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In recent days, five Supreme Court justices and a number of lower court judges have voiced support for the opposition, giving rise to speculation that the annulment might be overturned. Both Zajedno and the Belgrade Electoral Commission filed appeals; both have now apparently been rejected.

“This doesn’t make sense unless he has another legal option [in mind] or he has decided to hunker down and try to wait it out and not give an inch,” said a Western diplomat. “This demonstrates his desire to not compromise and to play it tough. It demonstrates he is more interested in power than the rule of law.”

People who have met with Milosevic in recent days said he seems surrealistically cavalier about events in his country. A meeting Saturday with an American press-rights advocate took place only after he delayed plans to go duck-hunting.

Kati Marton, the American who chairs the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, said Milosevic tore up a declaration she presented him on respecting press freedoms. She then scribbled another, terse statement, which he signed.

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Marton, who is married to Richard Holbrooke, the former U.S. peace envoy to the Balkans, came to Serbia to show support for independent media shut down by Milosevic. She said she told Milosevic that he should try to salvage a reputation that had improved dramatically with the signing of the Bosnian peace accord a year ago but that was now “as bad as could be.”

Radomir Lazarevic, president of the Belgrade Electoral Commission, told a late-night news conference Sunday that, with the appeals rejected, he will pursue other legal remedies, including a new appeal to the Yugoslav, or federal, judiciary.

The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is made up of dominant Serbia and smaller Montenegro. Almost all power rests at the Serbian level, but courts at the federal level can review other courts’ decisions.

While a protracted legal battle unfolds, the opposition said it feels it has already made significant gains.

“We succeeded in totally isolating Milosevic internationally,” Djindjic said. “For the first time, more than 100,000 people have turned out for 20 days in protest. Respect for the law has been put in priority. . . . We have succeeded in removing the tarnish of Serbs as a problematic, anti-democratic nation.”