At Least 50 Hurt as Police Beat Serb Protesters

Hundreds of Serbian riot police used clubs, water cannons and tear gas early today to disperse a crowd of demonstrators in central Belgrade, a clash that marked the most aggressive show of police force here in more than 2 1/2 months of daily mass protests against the government’s refusal to acknowledge opposition victories in local elections.

At least 50 protesters were injured, and dozens were arrested in the fray, which broke out shortly after midnight following a four-hour standoff between several hundred demonstrators and a phalanx of riot police.

Most of the thousands of marchers gathered for the 77th straight day of rallies quickly dispersed in the face of baton charges backed up by water cannons. Many were drenched in the subzero chill and shouted “traitors” and “fascists” at police. But some held their ground, retaliating by throwing stones, bricks and bottles. At least two officers were among the injured.

The police assault indicated that President Slobodan Milosevic could be moving to crush the protests that have shaken his government since November.

“Tonight, a crime was committed against the people of Belgrade,” opposition leader Vuk Draskovic said. “We won’t stop until those who gave orders for this crime resign.”

He urged people to come out again today and to “bring everything they need for their defense.”

“There is no more Gandhi-style resistance,” Draskovic said.

The opposition announced that today’s protest will start at 3 p.m. local time in Republic Square, the main rallying point for the daily protests in Belgrade, the Serbian and Yugoslav capital.

Sunday’s demonstrators, headed by Draskovic, had marched from a Belgrade suburb en route to a mass outdoor rally but were stopped by police at a bridge spanning the Sava River.

As Draskovic and other leaders of the opposition alliance Zajedno, or Together, tried to persuade the police to let the demonstrators pass, several thousand more protesters rushed to the scene, gathering at both ends of the bridge.

At that point, riot police equipped with clubs and shields on the suburban side of the bridge abruptly began striding toward the original group of protesters, who retreated. But on the other side of the bridge, police fired tear gas and a water cannon at several thousand people who had begun a sit-down demonstration. Then they charged the crowd with clubs flailing.

Among the injured was Vesna Pesic, another leader of the main opposition coalition, whom witnesses said was severely beaten by police. Draskovic told an independent radio station that he was chased by police and that shots were fired at his car as he fled.

Nevertheless, Draskovic issued his call for continuation of the mass protest rallies--protests that have been the opposition’s chief weapon in a campaign to force the Milosevic government to abandon claims to election victories in Belgrade and six other cities.

The violence was the most serious here since Christmas Eve, when a protester died during running street scuffles between opposition backers and Milosevic stalwarts who had been bused by the government into Belgrade from the provinces to stage counterdemonstrations in support of the regime.

Meanwhile, editors of two independent newspapers were interrogated by police in what could be another crackdown on independent media in Serbia.

Police took Petar Lazic, chief editor of the satirical weekly Krmaca, from his home Saturday and questioned him for two hours, the paper’s business manager said Sunday. Lazic was questioned about a satirical photomontage that compared Milosevic with Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.