Yugoslav power struggle intensifies

Press, 27 September 1988, Page 9

Yugoslav power struggle intensifies

NZPA-Reuter Belgrade Yugoslav Serbs staged massive protests against ethnic Albanians at the week-end, defying regional Communist leaders who called for restraint, and intensifying a power struggle in the country. The rallies were the largest of a campaign launched by Serbia, Yugoslavia’s largest province, alleging harassment of Slavs by the majority-Albanian population in the autonomous province of Kosovo. In the largest week-end rally, 150,000 people on Saturday took to the streets of the south Serbian town of Nis in the biggest political protest in Yugoslavia since World War Two. It was sponsored by official Serbian groups. Up to 100,000 Serbs turned out in Novi Sad in Vojvodina province on Sunday in defiance of Communist leaders there. Protesters voiced support for the Serbian Communist Party leader, Slobodan Milosevic, and other Serbian leaders, who say Kosovo’s 1.7 million ethnic Albanians are waging a “counterrevolution” and persecuting Slavs into leaving the

province. The rallies have grown in size and frequency since they began two . months ago in support of a constitutional reform ; drive by Mr Milosevic to , bring Kosovo and Vojvo- ■ dina, both autonomous Serbian provinces, under I the full control of Serbia, i Protesters have also increasingly denounced the entire Yugoslav leadership, accusing it of i mismanaging the economy, of corruption and of > complacency. Yugoslavia is in theory I a multi-ethnic communist i federation of six republics I and two autonomous provinces, under collective i rule with no individual i leader. : Some of Mr Milosevic’s critics, however, say he is exploiting Serbian nationalism and using the Koi sovo dilemma in his own personal power struggle to become a future Yugoslav strongman. In the Kosovo capital, Pristina, thousands of Serb and Montenegrin schoolchildren began a boycott of classes at the week-end to last until an early October Communist Party Central Committee meeting, which is due to address the Kosovo problem.