Blast at Milosevic Party Office Adds to Tensions

Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic’s ruling Socialists and his police on Wednesday blamed the opposition for a blast that shook a branch office, further raising tensions ahead of a major anti-Milosevic rally.

No one was injured, but the blast shattered windows in the building and throughout the neighborhood in Belgrade, the Yugoslav and Serbian capital.

The blast was apparently caused by a piece of plastic explosive, which left a tiny crater between the sidewalk and the wall of the building where it went off, Tanjug and the independent Beta news agencies reported.

Socialist Party of Serbia official Branislav Ivkovic said that, at the time of the explosion, a number of Socialist activists were in a meeting inside but that none were injured.

“This is a terrorist act by those who are an extended hand of NATO,” Ivkovic told the state-run Tanjug agency. The pro-Milosevic camp commonly accuses opposition leaders of being NATO stooges. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is reviled by many because of its 78-day bombing campaign last year against Yugoslavia in response to a Serbian crackdown against Kosovo Albanians.

Col. Milenko Ercic of the Belgrade police department said the explosion “indicates a possible connection between foreign intelligence services and certain parties that would benefit from incidents in Belgrade streets.”

“It’s a classic terrorist act . . . it is no coincidence that it happened ahead of the opposition rally,” Ercic said, referring to plans by anti-Milosevic forces to stage large protests Friday. He said the opposition will be held “fully responsible” for any possible violence Friday.

An opposition party, the Vojvodina Coalition, accused the Socialists of staging the blast, because “it is only in the regime’s interest to start a violent showdown with democratic forces in the country.”