THE IRISH TIMES > WORLD Wednesday, May 10, 2000 BST Wednesday, May 10, 2000 Milosevic's home town the focus for clampdown >From Gillian Sandford, in Pozarevac SERBIA: The home town of President Slobodan Milosevic was the focus of a major clampdown on opposition to his rule across Serbia yesterday. Police arrested an opposition leader, journalists and members of the youth resistance movement and set up checkpoints on all roads in and out of Pozarevac - where the Yugoslav president grew up and has a home - to prevent opposition supporters and political leaders arriving for a major opposition rally. But about 100 members of the youth resistance movement, Otpor, and other anti-Milosevic activists slipped past the cordon to interrupt a hastily convened counter-meeting set up by officials in Pozarevac's central square. By mid-afternoon, it was the scene of an extraordinary standoff, with the banner-waving anti-Milosevic protesters on one side and Socialist party officials from the city seeking to address 100 or so party stalwarts on the other. A small group of men in black trousers, black leather jackets and sunglasses - the usual garb of men working as Milosevic family bodyguards - moved to within inches of the jeering protesters. The demonstrators did not shift or back away, but continued distributing leaflets and brandishing their flags and placards. One 23-year-old Otpor protester said: "We want to show our resistance to the system. Milosevic is afraid of the youth of Otpor. We have parents. We have relatives. We have so many people who know us and know we are not the terrorists which the regime calls us. We just want to live like ordinary people." A hundred yards from the standoff, the Serbian Minister of the Interior, Mr Veljko Stoiljkovic, watched, as did several dozen young men wearing T-shirts with the Serbian national flag. It was as if they might be waiting for a signal. Pozarevac is a haven for the Milosevic family and its enterprises. Several domestic and foreign journalists and cameramen, who had also slipped into the town through the police cordon, watched as the standoff continued. Every minute threatened to explode into violent confrontation, if either side made a wrong move. The authorities had sought in every way to block the rally, held on Victory Day, which traditionally celebrates the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945. A lorry taking stage and sound equipment into the town was stopped en route shortly after midnight. An opposition leader, Mr Nenad Canak from the League of Social Democrats of Vojvodina, was arrested early yesterday morning on his way from Novi Sad to Pozarevac. In Belgrade, opposition leaders held an emergency meeting after coaches they had ordered to take them to the rally failed to turn up or were sent back to Belgrade by police at checkpoints. The non-government radio station B292 and the Belgrade television station Studio B, controlled by the opposition Serbian Renewal Movement, were taken off the air. Opposition leaders said they would hold a major demonstration in the capital within days to protest at yesterday's events. The incident that created this crisis happened last week in Pozarevac, when three members of the Otpor movement became involved in a fracas with bodyguards of Mr Milosevic's son, Marko. They were arrested and held beyond the maximum legal detention period and seemed to have been beaten when they appeared before an investigating magistrate on Monday. One, Mr Radoje Lukovic, had a 10 cm head wound, the other two were in bandages with bloodstained pads around their eyes, said their lawyer, Mr Borivoje Bokovic of the Serbian Renewal Movement. They had been released, but yesterday they were arrested again. <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. 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