World

World Watches Belgrade

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

October 5, 2000 / 3:35 PM EDT / CBS

As Western nations urged Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to quit Thursday, Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic hailed the popular uprising, saying the "last bastion of dictatorship" in Europe had fallen.

Djukanovic, who has repeatedly denounced the Yugoslav leader over the past three years and built close ties with the West, told Montena fax news agency that he hoped Serbia and its sister republic Montenegro could now forge better relations.

"Serbia has waited a long time for this day in which the free spirit of the people has spoken," he was quoted as saying.

But many Montenegrins have expressed doubts about opposition leader Vojislav Kostunica, who proclaimed himself the new Yugoslav president on Thursday, arguing that he is a nationalist.

The republic's government boycotted the September 24 presidential election and only 28.5 percent of people here voted, with just 5.5 percent of them backing Kostunica.

In stark contrast to the chaos on the streets of Belgrade, where hundreds of thousands demonstrated, life in the capital of Serbia's sister republic carried on as normal, with people enjoying a warm fall evening, sitting out in bars or doing some late shopping.

Western nations took a more proactive course Thursday. The leaders of Germany, France, Britain and Italy called on Milosevic to resign.

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder urged Yugoslav security forces not to fire on their own people and said violence in Belgrade would trigger "resistance" from the international community.

President Clinton said the United States supported Yugoslavs "trying to get their country back."

"I think the people are trying to get their country back and we support democracy and the will of the Serbian people. The United States stands with people everywhere who are fighting for their freedom," he told reporters in Washington.

Opposition leaders had given Milosevic a deadline coinciding with the start of Thursday's rally to admit outright defeat in a presidential election on Sept. 24.

In Russia, a traditional ally of Yugoslavia, Foreign Ministry officials met to discuss the situation in Belgrade. President Vladimir Putin, who was returning to Moscow from a visit to India, renewed a mediation offer which has so far drawn no response from either side.

In his call to Yugoslav security forces, Schroeder said: "My appeal—and I say this as a German chancellor on the basis of our experience during the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall—is 'Don't fire on your own people.' That would be a disaster."

He said the use of force by those in power "would be irresponsible and would have to run up against the resistance of the international community."

Italian leaders also said civil war should be avoided at all costs.

"We wish to add our voices to calls that the forces of the police and army of the Yugoslav Federation respect democracand the will of the people," said Walter Veltroni, leader of the biggest party in Italy's coalition government.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair and French President Jacques Chirac both told Milosevic he should resign.

"The verdict from the elections was clear, the verdict from the streets is clear, the message for Milosevic is clear. Go. Go now. Go before any more lives are lost, before there is any more bloodshed," Blair said.

"I believe Serbs are confirming today their victory of Sept. 24 and Milosevic must understand this," Chirac said during a visit to central France. "For pity's sake, let's stop and give the Serb people back their freedom."

France, which holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, issued a statement condemning the Yugoslav Constitutional Court's decision to annul the disputed presidential election as a bid by Milosevic to rob the opposition of victory.

"The only aim of this decision is to deny the victory of Vojislav Kostunica in the September 24 poll," it said.