Yugoslavia Blocks Opposition Rally

The Yugoslav government blocked a planned opposition rally in President Slobodan Milosevic’s hometown here Tuesday, detaining critics, stopping buses from heading for the rally and deploying hundreds of police to shut off access to the city.

Faced with the massive government effort, pro-democracy opposition leaders backed down and canceled the rally in Pozarevac, about 35 miles southeast of the capital, Belgrade. They cited “repression, violence and terror” as reasons for the cancellation, saying the alternative to giving in would have been “clashes among the citizens, even civil war in the country.”

“We did not want to drag Serbia into chaos, anarchy and civil war,” said one of the opposition leaders, Vuk Obradovic.

Milosevic’s opponents decided to reschedule the rally for Monday in Belgrade.

The Pozarevac rally was scheduled to protest last week’s beating of three student activists who clashed with close associates of Milosevic’s son, Marko. It would have been the first big opposition gathering in Pozarevac, a Milosevic stronghold known within opposition circles as “the forbidden city.”