Take over, Church tells Kostounica

By Vaiju Naravane

PARIS, SEPT. 28. Yugoslavia's powerful Orthodox Church today recognised the President, Mr. Slobodan Milosevic's opponent, Mr. Vojislav Kostounica, as the new President-elect and urged him to take control of the country. During a meeting of the Holy Synod, Church leaders called on the people and the Opposition to show restraint.

The development came as the situation in Yugoslavia grew even more tense today after the Opposition, claiming victory in Sunday's presidential elections, threatened to call a nation- wide strike if the authorities persisted in holding a second round run-off between Mr. Milosevic and Mr. Kostounica. At one of the biggest rallies held in downtown Belgrade attended by over 200,000 supporters, Mr Kostounica declared that he had clearly won the election in the first round and there was no question of being pushed into a second round by Mr Milosevic and the Electoral Commission he controls.

He said he and his supporters would demonstrate peacefully against the Government's decision and would, under no circumstances, accept a face-off against the incumbent.

Rallies of support to Mr. Kostounica were held in all the major towns across Serbia. The atmosphere was joyful but marked by uncertainty and anxiety. ``We will demonstrate in peace as we did in 1997 when he tried to steal our victory in the municipal elections. We are worried, however, that he will send infiltrators to make trouble and then use that to clamp down emergency rule,'' Mr. Borislav Radesovic, a school teacher told The Hindu on the line from Belgrade. ``We must at all costs avoid giving him an excuse to use force,'' he said.

But there was reason for hope. The Opposition leader, Mr. Zoran Djindjic, confirmed that his colleagues had begun ``low level talks'' with Mr. Milosevic's Serbian Socialist Party, the army and the police and said he hoped this would lead to a peaceful transfer of power.

Yugoslavia's Generals on Wednesday ruled out an intervention or action by the armed forces in the show of force between the Government and the Opposition. ``The army is there to fight external aggression and will not turn against our own people,'' the Chief of Staff told French television. It is believed that Mr. Milosevic has lost the support of several of his army commanders and that he is under pressure from within his own party to resign. The former Prime Minister, Mr. Milan Panic, suggested on Wednesday that a way out of the crisis would be for Russia to grant him asylum.

Mr. Milosevic is wanted for war crimes by the U.N.'s International Crime Tribunal. He has painted himself into a corner and is now desperately seeking a way out.

The Electoral Commission published the first round figures on Wednesday night just hours after the Opposition staged massive rallies in Belgrade, Nis, Novi Sad and other major cities. The commission credits Mr. Kostounica with 48.96 per cent of the vote as against 38.62 per cent for Mr. Milosevic. The Opposition claims its candidate won 52.54 per cent of the vote and has alleged that the commission did not take into account results from over 300 polling stations, shortchanging their candidate of 600,000 votes.

The Opposition says it will carry on this war of nerves until Mr Milosevic accepts defeat. They say they plan to adopt the same strategy - peaceful street protests - they used when they made Mr. Milosevic back off from stealing their electoral victory in municipal polls.

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