Kostunica: Elections the new Serb Uprising

KIKINDA, GORNJI MILANOVAC, Friday -- Presidential front-runner Vojislav Kostunica today compared Yugoslavia's elections this month to the Serb Uprising when Serbia broke out of Turkish occupation after five hundred years. Kostunica hit the hustings with a vengeance today, with rousing speeches in several towns in Serbia's central Sumadija region. Accusing the Milosevic regime of "bringing foreign armies onto Serb territory," the opposition candidate was greeted with shouts of "This is the president" by five thousand residents of Gornji Milanovac, where he stood among them on the town square after the local authorities banned the erection of a stage.

Kostunica also visited the cities of Ljig and Cacak as well as the village of Kostunci, the village from which his family originated. About three hundred residents gathered in front of the local church and greeted him with the traditional Serbian welcome of bread and salt.

Later, speaking to Television VK in the Vojvodina city of Kikinda, Kostunica said that the interests of Slobodan Milosevic and UNMIK chief Bernard Kouchner coincided in the staging of Yugoslavia's federal elections in Kosovo. Kouchner's agreement to permit elections in Kosovo's Serbian enclaves, he said, would contribute to the legitimisation of the questionable elections the UN chief has called for October 8. Opening polling stations in Kosovo was desirable in that it demonstrated that the province was still part of Serbia, said Kostunica, but also opened much greater opportunities for the Belgrade regime to manipulate the election results.

Source: B92

---

Back to Archive | Back to Kosov@ Crisis