Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

YUGOSLAV POLICE FIGHT OFF A SIEGE IN PROVINCIAL CITY

YUGOSLAV POLICE FIGHT OFF A SIEGE IN PROVINCIAL CITY
Credit...The New York Times Archives
See the article in its original context from
October 9, 1988, Section 1, Page 1Buy Reprints
TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers.
About the Archive
This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them.
Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions.

Riot policemen using truncheons and cattle prods today broke up a crowd that had besieged the Parliament building of the republic of Montenegro, in southern Yugoslavia, since Friday.

The crowd has been demanding the resignation of the republic's leaders, but at a joint meeting this afternoon, the collective presidency of Montenegro and the Politburo of the local Communist Party refused to yield. Under Yugoslavia's political federation system, each of its eight republics and provinces are ruled by autonomous presidencies and Communist Politburos.

The national leadership also met and reacted strongly against the protest. In a statement issued after a special session of the Yugoslav Communist Party Politburo in Belgrade, the leadership made it clear that it would not yield to the demands of the protesters, estimated at 10,000 to 20,000. 'Putsch' Attempt Charged

''Nationalist forces are trying to make use of the protest rally in Titograd to remove by a putsch the leadership of the Communist League of Montenegro as well as the leadership of the republic, and threaten its constitutional position as an equal member of the federation,'' the statement declared.

The emphasis on nationalism and the suggestion that the unnamed forces threatened Montenegro's independence within the Yugoslav federation suggested that the national party leadership was sending as warning to Serbia, Yugoslavia's most populous republic.

Montenegrins, though politically separate, are considered a part of the Serbian nation and express the Serbian nationalist sentiments that underlie much of the unrest prompting concern throughout Yugoslavia. '81 Strife Over Albanians

The police actions today were believed to represent the first use of force in Yugoslavia since 1981, when special troops crushed riots by ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, an autonomous province of Serbia.

The Titograd demonstration followed an all-night mass protest in the northern province of Vojvodina, also an autonomous province of Serbia. That protest forced the resignations on Thursday of the provincial Politburo and the chief of the collective presidency there.

Both the Montenegro and the Vojvodina demonstrations were the result of an accumulation of popular dissatisfaction and of anger at political leaders that was judged to have failed.

The main causes of this dissatisfaction are Yugoslavia's sharply declining standard of living and a growing sense among Serbs that they are being held down because they are the country's largest nationality and are viewed with suspicion by other Yugoslavs. Like the Serbs, the Montenegrins are Slavs, speak Serbian and belong to the Serbian Orthodox Church. With a population of about 600,000, their mountainous republic is the smallest of Yugoslavia's federal units.

Serbia's Communist Party leader, Slobodan Milosevic, has emerged during the recent unrest as its political beneficiary. Many Yugoslavs say they see his hand in the organization of the street protests for more Serbian political power.

The Titograd demonstrators today showed their endorsement of the Serbian cause by shouting support for Mr. Milosevic. Since his election as Serbian Communist Party chief last year, he has come to personify Serbian nationalist aspirations.

As in Novi Sad, the capital of Vojvodina, the protesters in Titograd chanted Mr. Milosevic's name and specifically exempted from their resignation demands Montenegrin party leaders who are considered close to him.

Because Vojvodina is an autonomous province of Serbia, Mr. Milosevic exercises more direct power there, which may account for the success of the resignation demands there. He occupies no position that would allow him to intervene openly in Montenegrin politics.

The Titograd police reported that 23 demonstrators had been detained there, but said most had been released after questioning. A few people were injured, the police added. The Montenegrin radio announced that a state of emergency prevailed in the capital and that people from outlying areas trying to enter the town to join in the rally were being prevented from doing so.

Witnesses said that riot policemen also tear-gassed hundreds of metalworkers on the road from Niksic to Titograd as they tried to march to join the protest there. The demonstrators were reported later to have dispersed.

The dissatisfaction of Serbs and Montenegrins have as their focus the situation of 200,000 of their fellows who make up a minority among 1.7 million ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, like Vojvodina an autonomous province of Serbia.

The Slavic residents of the province fear both the preponderance of the Albanians and their high birth rate. And they charge that incidents of violence that have occurred since an Albanian mass-protest movement in 1981 have taken as objective the forcing of all Slavs from the province.

Mr. Milosevic has advocated a series of constitutional amendments to reduce the two provinces' autonomy.

The events in Vojvodina and Montenegro this week are being viewed by Yugoslavs and diplomats as a well-organized prelude to a full session of the national Communist Party's policy-making Central Committee, which is to begin on Oct. 17. Mr. Milosevic will enter this important meeting in a position based on the support in the streets he has been receiving.

The Serbian leader has been less specific in addressing the economic grievances of the 23 million Yugoslavs. Foremost among these are an annual rate of inflation surpassing 200 percent; unemployment at 14 percent; wage restraints imposed by international creditors that have intensified an unpopular austerity program, and a sharply reduced standard of living.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section 1, Page 1 of the National edition with the headline: YUGOSLAV POLICE FIGHT OFF A SIEGE IN PROVINCIAL CITY. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT