Liberation of Kosovo: Serbia - Anti-Milosevic protest halted

SERBIAN POLICE stoppedKosovo Serb refugees from holding a hostile demonstration in the centre of Belgrade yesterday, as the authorities showed their determination to keep the scale of the Kosovo debacle from the general public.

About 200 Serbs gathered on Terazije, the main street in the Serbian capital, but were ordered away by police.

The attempted protest coincided with an announcement by a group of opposition parties in Serbia that they were starting a campaign for early elections to oust President Slobodan Milosevic.

Milan Protic, a spokesman for the umbrella organisation, Alliance for Change, said: "There will be no money, there are 3 million jobless people, there is a flow of Kosovo Serb refugees, and there is internal discontent within the security forces over yet another lost war. The ballot box is the only peaceful way out of all that." Mr Protic said the alliance planned to hold election rallies.