Fifth day of alliance rally

BELGRADE, Saturday - Thousands of Serbian citizens all around the country continued their protest today to demand a change of government and this evenings rally organised the mock trial of the Minister for Information.

Around 40,000 Belgraders protested in the city streets on Saturday evening demanding a change of government in Serbia. Democratic Party official, Cedomir Jovanovic said that tonight's protest was dedicated to the former owner of the "Dnevni telegraf" newspaper, Slavko Curuvija who was killed on 11th April this year in Belgrade. Led by drummers, protesters walked from the central square on a tour of the media area of town past the Studio B, Radio Television Serbia and Politika buildings. The protesters lit candles in front of Curuvija's home. After the walk, Alliance for Change leaders held a mock trial of those responsible for information in Serbia. The first to be tried was the Serbian Minister for Information, Aleksandar Vucic, followed by Yugoslavian Ministers for Information, Goran Matic and Ivan Markovic, RTS director, Dragoljub Milanovic and "Politika's" director, Hadzi Dragan Antic. They were all accused of "lying to the Serbian people".

In Nis, in front of 30,000 people, one of the Alliance of Democratic Parties' leaders, Nenad Canak said that the opposition was united. Canak said that in Serbia "nothing has been rebuilt", the only two building sites in the country are in Dedinje and Zlatibor where government representatives are "building villas and haciendas". He announced the formation of the "first free government of Vojvodina on Monday in Novi Sad, which as the most developed part of the country will help the rest", reports Beta. Around 5,000 Kraguevac citizens protested again today demanding the step down of Slobodan Milosevic and his regime. At the fifth consecutive rally, Vice president of the Democratic Party Slobodan Vuksanovic called on Milosevic to step down and "thus save himself and the nation". Social Democratic Party representative, Dragan Vucinic stated that everything in Serbia had lost its value citing as an example that in the new edition of the encyclopedia Larouse, there is no mention of Mihajlo Pupin (scientist), Danilo Kis (writer), but "two pages were dedicated to Mira Markovic". Member of the Vojvodina Coalition, Predrag Cvetkovic demanded the resignation of the Minister for Education, Jovo todorevic for failing to react to the arrest of 12 students from the "Otpor" organisation in Kraguevac. Around 2,000 citizens protested in Valjevo, 2,000 in Krusevac, over 1,000 in Sombor and several hundred in Sabac, Pirot, Prokuplje, Leskovac and other places in Serbia.

Source: B92

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