Some Yugoslav leaders offer to resign

Press, 7 October 1988, Page 6

Some Yugoslav leaders offer to resign

NZPA-Reuter Novi Sad, Yugoslavia The Communist Party leadership of Yugoslavia’s Vojvodina province, under siege by some 100,000 protesters, have said they will offer their resignation today. Protesters surrounded a regional party headquarters building in the Vojvodina capital, Novi Sad, demanding that all the province’s leaders should quit, accusing them of corruption and blocking reform. When a Vojvodina Politburo member, Svetozar Jovanovic, read out the official offer on Wednesday night to stand down, the crowd pelted him with cups of yoghurt and cartons of fruit juice. , “The Presidency of the League of Communists of Vojvodina has decided (that), at tomorrow’s emergency meeting ... all members of the presidency, including its president and secretary, will offer their resignations,” the statement said. The protesters replied with obscenities and yelled: “There is no tomorrow, we want you out

tonight,” and, “We won’t leave until you resign.” They shouted support for the Serbian Communist Party leader, Slobodan Milosevic, who is pushing for changes in the Constitution of multi-ethnic Yugoslavia to bring the autonomous provinces of Vojvodina and Kosovo under Serbian control. The crowd demanded that Mr Milosevic address them and carried banners saying “Slobo help us.” Belgrade radio reported that Mr Milosevic was at an emergency session of the Yugoslav Politburo and would go to Novi Sad afterwards. A cordon of some 1000 policemen held back the crowd. They were reinforced by a special unit of riot police after demonstrators tried several times to storm the building. The radio reported that many people were still arriving in Novi Sad from other Vojvodina towns. After hours of negotiating with the protesters’ delegates, Vojvodina leaders cloistered themselves inside the building.