From: "Serbian News Network" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Saturday March 24 12:01 PM ET Serb Socialists Rally Against NATO, Meet Milosevic By Julijana Mojsilovic BELGRADE (Reuters) - Thousands of people waving national and party flags gathered in central Belgrade on Saturday for an anti-NATO (news - web sites) rally organized by the Socialist party of ousted Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic (news - web sites). After the rally, held to denounce the air war against Yugoslavia that began two years ago to the day, some demonstrators marched to Milosevic's suburban home and the former leader came out to greet them in a rare public appearance. Milosevic, in a dark blue suit, walked for several minutes among a few hundred supporters who shook his hand or kissed him. They chanted ``Slobo, we will not give you up!,'' referring to Western demands he should be handed over to the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague (news - web sites), which has indicted him for crimes against humanity committed in Kosovo in 1998-99. ``It's not enough that he is not in power any more, it's too much for them (his opponents) that he is free,'' a young socialist told the rally. Around 5,000 people turned up for the rally held under the motto ``We must not forget, this must not happen again.'' Some carried portraits of the long-time Serb leader. The rally showed Milosevic still has die-hard supporters but it was a far cry from the hundreds of thousands of people he could draw in his heyday. NATO's air campaign from March 24 to June 12 1999 was launched to halt repression of majority ethnic Albanians in Kosovo and put the province under international control after Milosevic's forces had withdrawn. But the bombing also killed civilians. NATO has never issued an official estimate of how many, but New York-based group Human Rights Watch puts the figure at around 500. In addition, around 750 police and army members were killed in the air war, Belgrade's Vecernje Novosti newspaper said on Saturday. It did not give a source for the figure. Saturday's rally was held in Republic Square, known for huge anti-Milosevic gatherings by his opponents while he was in power. Milosevic conceded electoral defeat to reformists after a mass uprising last October after a decade in power. As loudspeakers blared with patriotic songs, the crowd of around 5,000 people chanted ``NATO fascists,'' ``treason, treason,'' in a reference to new Yugoslav authorities led by President Vojislav Kostunica (news - web sites). At a separate occasion, Kostunica, known as a bitter critic of the NATO bombing, marked the anniversary by attending a memorial service at the Orthodox St. Marko's church, only a mile away from the Socialist rally. Email this story - Miroslav Antic, http://www.antic.org/SNN/ _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
