Judges Join Protests In Belgrade Opposition Leaders Return; Milosevic’s Wife Warns Of War

Encouraged by international support for their cause, opposition leaders returned from abroad Friday, claiming world leaders as their allies in the fight against President Slobodan Milosevic.

But they got no further in their efforts to force Milosevic to recognize recent opposition election victories, and his politically powerful wife warned that violence may be coming.

Dozens of judges joined in the public protest against Milosevic, mingling with thousands of students at a rally Friday evening. The judges, from local and district courts in Belgrade, waved copies of the constitution at riot police who prevented the students from marching - apparently alluding to the alleged illegality of the regime’s cancellation of the opposition’s triumphs in Nov. 17 elections.

Three opposition leaders said on returning from Rome that the Italian government, the European Union and the international community support their fight to have Milosevic’s authoritarian regime accept opposition victories in Belgrade and 13 other cities.

Italian Foreign Minister Lamberto Dini “sent a clear message to Milosevic that he must reinstate the election results of Nov. 17 all over Serbia,” Vuk Draskovic, one of the leaders, told reporters.

Later, at an opposition rally that drew more than 20,000 supporters, Draskovic urged Milosevic to give in.

“The world wants to help Serbia and doesn’t want to isolate it, but the key is in Milosevic’s hands,” he told the crowd gathered in a downtown square and hemmed in, as in past weeks, by riot police.

“There is not a single country, a single politician in the world who supports Milosevic now,” said Zoran Djindjic, another opposition leader.

Earlier Friday, several hundred students brought their pets for a protest march in front of the veterinary faculty in Belgrade. A white mare with a red ribbon symbolizing the Belgrade protests led the column. Pet owners brought dozens of dogs, a black cat, and even fish.

The battle over Nis, Serbia’s second-largest city, appeared to be over. A court there on Friday rejected a last-minute appeal by die-hard Socialists challenging an electoral board decision that the city was won by the opposition on Nov. 17.

But Milosevic showed no signs of conceding his Socialist party’s losses in other cities.

The Socialists have until this afternoon to appeal a Belgrade electoral commission ruling that the capital was won by the opposition.

A party official at the Belgrade headquarters of the Socialist Party said his organization had not yet lodged an appeal. But even if the Socialists don’t file one, Milosevic might simply ignore the commission. Opposition officials expressed fear Thursday that he might suspend normal municipal government in Belgrade and decide to rule the capital by decree.

Those fears were fed Friday by Mirjana Markovic, Milosevic’s wife and leader of the allied neo-Communists, who warned of civil war and accused her husband’s foes of inciting it.

Markovic is believed to strongly influence Milosevic, and she has taken a consistently tough approach to demonstrators who have been on the streets of Belgrade for nearly two months.