Warning of emergency in Yugoslavia

Press, 11 October 1988, Page 10

Warning of emergency in Yugoslavia

NZPA-Reuter Belgrade President Raif Dizdarevic told Yugoslavia’s 23 million people on Sunday that current political unrest could lead to a state of emergency being imposed.

But as he spoke, in a radio and television address, protests continued around the country over economic hardship, ethnic differences and leadership failures. In Niksic, in the Montenegro region which borders Albania, thousands of students and workers, angry over low pay and police violence, demonstrated until early on Monday outside local-gov-ernment headquarters demanding that regional leaders resign. Paramilitary police were on alert nearby. Many protesters were armed with pistols and

some were drunk, a Reuters correspondent said. In Yugoslavia’s biggest republic, Serbia, and in its two autonomous provinces, the predominantly ethnic Albanian Kosovo to the south and Vojvodina to the north, tens of thousands staged other protests over Serb-Albanian conflict in Kosovo. Mr Dizdarevic, in the first such Presidential address since President Josip Broz Tito died in 1980, said that the unrest could lead to a state of emergency. Yugoslavia is hit by an economic crisis: 217 per

cent inflation and a $2l billion debt. Worker unrest spilled on to the streets in the summer after Prime Minister Branko Mikulic imposed austerity measures. A wave of Serbian nationalist protests followed as mass protest rallies were held against the alleged persecution of Slavs in Kosovo by the province’s 1.7 million Albanians. The two types of protest have merged into one broad attack on the ruling communist elite which is dominated by some 50 top politicians in the country’s collective leadership or-

gans. On Saturday the Prime Minister, Branko Mikulic, promised that austerity measures would be softened in the weeks ahead. On Saturday paramilitary police went into action for the first time in years in Montenegro with tear gas and clubs to break up protests aimed at toppling the regional regime. Yugoslav analysts said the police action could fuel a popular backlash against the regime. In Niksic, students and workers staged their first joint protest, and student unions around the country voiced support.