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June 23, 1999
Web posted at: 1:27 p.m. EDT (1727 GMT)

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (CNN) -- Opposition parties were planning Wednesday for weekend demonstrations against the government of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, hoping to capitalize on distrust and disillusionment engendered by the Kosovo conflict.

Serbs who fled the Serbian province as Yugoslav troops withdrew have been forced to return by the Yugoslav government, creating ill feelings among people who were once some of Milosevic's strongest supporters.

Slobodan Vuksanovic, vice president of the leading opposition Democratic Party, said Tuesday that the Serb people had looked to Milosevic to protect their country -- Kosovo, in particular.

"Now he is afraid of Serbian refugees on the roads of Serbia, more than he is afraid of the whole opposition," Vuksanovic said. "And that is why Serbs from Kosovo are not allowed to continue their travel to Belgrade and other cities."

Opposition leaders also hope the West's refusal to give Serbia any reconstruction aid until Milosevic is out of power will turn Serbs against their president.

The time may be ripe. According to a poll from the Belgrade Institute for Political Studies, Milosevic's popularity has dropped to 15.6 percent from 40 percent in recent years. That's still enough to make him Serbia's most popular politician, said the institute's Srobobran Brankovic.

"A part of our reality is the fact that people still don't see any real alternative to Milosevic," Brankovic said.

But Milosevic also headed the institute's list of least trusted politicians, with 21 percent saying they had no confidence in him.

Democratic Party leaders said their members would participate in a rally organized by the umbrella group Alliance for Change. The rally, in the central Serb town of Cacak, is to be part of a series of protests demanding early elections and democratic reforms.

A fractured opposition

But questions remained over whether Yugoslavia's fractured opposition -- whose disagreements with each other spoiled a 1996 bid to oust Milosevic -- could piece together a movement to be successful this time.

Moderate opposition leader Vuk Draskovic, fired in April from a government ministerial position for criticizing Milosevic's Kosovo policy, said Tuesday his Serbian Renewal Movement would not participate in any rallies.

"Serbian Renewal Movement doesn't want to call people in the streets in these difficult times," said Draskovic, who was Serbia's second most trusted politician in the Belgrade Institute's poll. "A political agreement among the leading parties will lead to the elections."

Reformers are operating within Milosevic's Socialist party, as well as the neo-communist United Left party of Milosevic's wife, Mirjana Markovic, Draskovic said.

Draskovic was one of the leaders of the 1996 revolt, led by a coalition called Zajedno, or Together. But that alliance fell apart over personal rivalries.

Djindjic, leader of the main opposition Democratic Party, predicts Milosevic will be forced from office

Zoran Djindjic, former mayor of Belgrade and another organizer of the 1996 demonstrations, said he was certain that Milosevic was on his way out this time, despite differences of opinion among the opposition groups.

"I am confident that this time next year Milosevic will be history," said Djindjic, leader of the Democratic Party, after talks with British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook on Tuesday.

Opposition party leaders have been bolstered by the Serbian Orthodox Church Holy Synod and a former aide to the late Yugoslav Communist leader Marshal Tito, who have called on Milosevic to resign.

"The outcome of your Greater Serbian hegemonic policy is the unseen suffering of the people of this unfortunate country, " said former Yugoslav Foreign Minister Milos Minic in an open letter to Milosevic.

Minic, now in his early 90s, was allied with Tito, who ruled Yugoslavia unchallenged for 35 years. Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority obtained autonomy -- abolished by Milosevic in 1989 -- under Tito.

The opposition has another hurdle to overcome: Yugoslavia is still in an official state of war, preventing open demonstrations. But the Yugoslav Parliament is expected to convene Thursday to lift that declaration, made when NATO began its bombing campaign on March 24.

Correspondent Jim Clancy contributed to this report.

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