Serbian Opposition draws flak

BELGRADE (YUGOSLAVIA), MAY 28. Some 10,000 people showed up on Saturday for an anti-Government rally, a relatively low turnout reflecting popular disappointment with the leaders of the political Opposition here.

They heard Mr. Vuk Draskovic, the head of the main Opposition party, the Serbian Renewal Movement, describe a city and a country ``paralysed by fear, despair and a feeling of helplessness'' in the face of the power of the President, Mr. Slobodan Milosevic. But Mr. Draskovic, in a wandering speech, seemed unable to articulate a clear strategy to alleviate that paralysis, other than a united push for early democratic elections.

Mr. Zoran Djindjic, head of the Democracy Party, the main element of the Alliance for Change coalition, preached unity, patience and collective self-defense. ``We can't checkmate Milosevic in one move,'' he said. ``We have to pressure him, surround him and drain out his political life drop by drop.''

Mr. Milosevic ``is most afraid of 3 million people who will come to the polling station and say, `We don't want you,''' Mr. Djindjic said. Unlike previous rallies, this one heard only three Opposition leaders speak - not all 16 - and there were more speakers from other parts of Serbian society, including academics, women's activists and the spreading student movement, Otpor, or Resistance.

The idea, said Mr. Zarko Korac, a political leader in the alliance, is to present a wider social front of solidarity against the Government. ``The Opposition right now is not capable of making a very consistent, clear program,'' Mr. Korac said. ``It's not just that the big parties are not up to the situation, but what you need is a wider front to confront the dictatorship.''

Mr. Ognjen Pribicevic, a Draskovic adviser, said: ``We are doing what we can at the moment. And we are more united than you think, especially the big parties.'' Officials said the Opposition would concentrate more on meetings and retail politics in the countryside, where feelings run higher than in Belgrade. But an Otpor speaker, Mr. Nemanja from Krusevac, criticised the politicians for disunity and squabbling. ``For seven days, dear leaders,'' he said, ``you were wasting time on useless meetings.'' He said Otpor had drawn up a plan for hunger strikes, then tried to give it to Mr. Draskovic, who kept his hands to his side. Mr. Djindjic finally took it.

With declining numbers - a rally in mid-April drew more than 100,000 people, but one on May 15 drew only about 25,000 - this rally is likely to be the last of its kind for now. It followed a dispiriting 10 days for the political opposition here.

On May 17, the Serbian Government seized control of the Belgrade television station Studio B, controlled by Mr. Draskovic's party. But fearing a wider crackdown on all Opposition-run cities and independent media, Mr. Draskovic urged other Opposition leaders not to attempt outright confrontation with the Government, bringing accusations that he was capitulating without a struggle.

Otpor in particular has been urging a programme of civil disobedience, but at the same time, nightly rallies here for Studio B have shrunk to fewer than 500 people. To blunt Otpor, the Government closed universities a week early.

- New York Times

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