More than 100,000 people gathered in front of the Yugoslav parliament in central Belgrade this evening in a protest against the regime of President Slobodan Milosevic. The rally, organised by a group of opposition parties, began with a traditional Serbian hymn "God give us justice." Earlier, the Yugoslavian government had attempted to defuse the rally’s impact by announcing their decision to hold early elections in Serbia.
One of the main opposition parties, the Serbian Renewal Movement, had said that they would not take part in the rally. However their leader Vuk Draskovic appeared unexpectedly and demanded early elections to replace the present regime. Mr. Draskovic had previously said that it was too late to demand a transitional government, one of the central demands of the rally's organisers.
President Milosevic's Socialist Party revealed the plans for the general election following an opposition rally attended by 20,000 people in the southern city of Nis last night. Party officials say that a polling date, probably in November, will be set by the Serbian parliament next month. Opponents of the Government say that they are suspicious about the election, which they believe will not be democratic or reliable.
In a separate development, the Kosovo Liberation Army has said that it has met a deadline set by NATO for the handover of 60% of its weapons. So far there has been no confirmation of the claim from the international peacekeeping force, K-FOR. The deadline requires the weapons to be handed over by midnight tonight and stored at sites that will be jointly guarded by the KLA and K-FOR. The deadline comes at the end of the second month of K-FOR's occupation of Kosovo in the aftermath of NATO's bombing campaign against Serbian forces.
