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[Please edit out the substantial spin and manipulation when reading this. Every single Serb opposed the NATO bombing whether or not they were pro- or anti-Milosevic. The press wants to tar the mass-anti-NATO sentiment in most of the country by association with the media image of Milosevic=Hitler and hence generate collective demonization of the whole Serb people for resisting NATO - especially US and German - encroachments in the Balkans.]
Serbs rally 3 years after start of NATO bombing
By Gordana Kukic
BELGRADE, March 24 (Reuters) - Thousands of Serbs, some waving national flags and pictures of former President Slobodan Milosevic, gathered in central Belgrade on Sunday to mark the third anniversary of the start of NATO's bombing of Yugoslavia.
At a rally of more than 5,000 people organised by Milosevic's Socialist Party, demonstrators denounced NATO and waved placards condemning a U.N. war crimes tribunal, which is trying Milosevic in The Hague. The crowd then swelled to around 10,000 for a protest march.
"We will keep gathering every March 24 to recall what happened, to thank all those who resisted and to pay tribute to all those who laid down their lives for freedom," declared Zoran Andjelkovic, the party's secretary-general.
NATO launched the 78-day bombing campaign to end Serb repression of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. The air war forced Milosevic to pull Serb forces out of the province, which is now a protectorate of NATO and the United Nations.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch estimates about 500 civilians were killed in the bombing. NATO never gave an estimate but has not disputed the campaign group's figure. [The heavily documented official Yugoslav figure was actually 2,000 civilian deaths and 550 military deaths, as well as 1,500 civilians killed since NATO entered Kosovo and 1,300 members of minority communities in Kosovo officially missing or disapeared].
Protesters at the rally held placards calling on prominent war crimes indictees such as Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic not to surrender and vowing that members of the armed forces would not be given up to the tribunal in The Hague.
SERBS SAY TRIBUNAL BIASED
Many Serbs see the tribunal as biased against them. Western human rights campaigners say Serbs have not faced up to the role of their forces in the bloody break-up of the old Yugoslavia.
Milosevic was ousted by a reformist alliance in October 2000 and is now on trial at the war crimes tribunal, accused of responsibility for atrocities by Serb forces in Kosovo, Bosnia and Croatia during the last decade of Balkan wars.
The demonstrators marched to the Serbian government building and demanded early elections. They also laid a wreath in memory of those killed in the air war at a complex of Yugoslav Army buildings partially destroyed by the bombing.
Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica, who describes himself as a moderate nationalist, said the authorities under Milosevic could and should have avoided conflict with the Western military alliance. But he was also highly critical of the bombing itself.
"If March 24 was a day to celebrate, it would be celebrated today in the capitals of NATO countries. But it isn't. It's not even being mentioned," he said in a written statement.
Kostunica recalled the precarious position of Kosovo's Serb minority. Around 180,000 Serbs have left the province since the end of the bombing amid ethnic Albanian attacks and many of those who remain live in heavily guarded enclaves.
"It must never be forgotten who had their finger on the trigger from a safe altitude of 30,000 feet," Kostunica said.
Sunday's demonstration was a far cry from the mass rallies of hundreds of thousands organised by the Socialists in their heyday. But it showed nationalist parties can still command support among some sections of Serbian society.
Around 10,000 people attended a rally organised by the ultra-nationalist Radicals in the southern city of Nis on Friday, according to local media reports.
10:13 03-24-02
Sunday, 24 March, 2002, 16:56 GMT
Milosevic supporters in anti-Nato protest
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_1890000/1890937.stm
Protesters chanted: "Nato are murderers"
[NOTE: The black robed figures have "Hague" written on them in cyrillic, reflecting a popular perception in Yugoslavia and in the Balkans more generally that this Tribunal is simply a political tool that serves the purpose of a modern day NATO inquisition.]
Thousands of supporters of the former Yugoslav President, Slobodan Milosevic, have attended a rally in Belgrade, marking the third anniversary of the start of Nato's bombing campaign against Yugoslavia. Many of the crowd carried anti-Nato banners and displayed their anger towards the military alliance chanting "Nato are murderers".
Anti-Nato demonstrators tear up a US flag in protest at the air strikes
Last year, the government declared 24 March a new national holiday, called Remembrance Day. The Yugoslav authorities say 2,000 civilians, and 1,000 police officers and soldiers, were killed during the bombing campaign. Yugoslav president Vojislav Kostunica attended a memorial service at Belgrade's St Marko Church.
Accusations
Many members of Mr Milosevic's Socialist Party of Serbia had travelled to the capital Belgrade by bus to show their support for the former leader.
The Yugoslav president attended a memorial service in Belgrade
"Everything is worse since Slobodan has gone," read one placard, referring to Mr Milosevic's extradition last June to the UN war crimes tribunal in the Hague, where he is on trial for war crimes in Kosovo, Bosnia and Croatia. Ivica Dacic, an official of Milosevic's Socialist Party of Serbia, condemned Nato's 78-day air war as a "criminal act". "The bombing is a criminal act against Yugoslavia, and it must be remembered and marked regardless who is in power," Mr Dacic said. Nato launched the air strikes to stop Mr Milosevic's crackdown on ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.
New beginning
In an interview published on Sunday in the Politika newspaper Mr Kostunica reiterated his opposition to Serb war crimes suspects being extradited to The Hague without a change in the law.
A memorial service honoured the victims
"Extraditions (without a law) would certainly cause tremors not only on political scene but also more dangerous tremors - in the state itself," Mr Kostunica was quoted as saying. Meanwhile, in Kosovo, people had a different view of the start of the Nato bombing campaign three years ago. Newly elected provincial President Ibrahim Rugova described the anniversary as the beginning of Kosovo's freedom. "This is the day when Kosovo's freedom began, a new dawning for Kosovo. We all remember the clear night, the holy night, when Kosovo's sky was lit by the light of hope and renewal," he said.
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