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Plum brandy, a looted coat hanger - scenes of chaos in a Milosevic stronghold |
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October 7, 2000
BELGRADE, OCT 6 (AP) - As Belgrade tumbled into disarray, gangs of young people, many of them drunk, roamed the parliament building, ripping out TV sets and smashing portraits of Slobodan Milosevic. They grabbed leather-covered chairs, computers- even coat hangers - as flames licked from the ground-floor windows and choking smoke spread through the dome-topped 1932 building. Outside, demonstrators dodged bursts of tear gas and overturned police cars burned fiercely. The ornate structure was the first bastion to fall to the demonstrators Thursday in their massive rallies to support Vojislav Kostunica, the opposition leader who claims he triumphed over Milosevic in the Sept. 24 elections. The onslaught on the parliament began when a cordon of riot policemen fired tear gas grenades to clear the entrance of the building. Opposition leaders appealed for calm, but the crowd, led by street toughs from Cacak, an industrial town in central Serbia, surged back. They taunted the officers, dozens of whom began deserting the ranks, taking off their helmets, shields and bulletproof vests and joining the demonstrators. Suddenly, police still inside the building fired tear gas and stun grenades. Instead of backing down, the crowd swarmed forward, breaking down doors and windows and setting a dozen patrol cars and wagons on fire. A man ran out of the building carrying a coat hanger. "This is a souvenir of the revolution," he exclaimed. "I can tell my children that I took part." Another man carried out a TV set and placed it on a trash can. He plastered a sticker on the screen with the words "he's finished," and stood back to admire his work. "Now they can watch what is going on here," he said, pointing to other protesters. Offices of the leaders of Milosevic's Socialist Party were ransacked, furniture and files tossed through the windows. Legislators' chairs were brought out into the street. People sat on them, sipping plum brandy. Window panes popped as they overheated from the flames in the building, and shards of glass rained on people below. Marble staircases and statues in vaults were littered with opposition posters, stickers, slogans. TV monitors in wide hallways were ripped off from their platforms, leaving wires dangling. People sprinted down the long corridors, in and out of the sumptuous wood-paneled rooms and conference halls, checking behind every pillar for a policeman in hiding. In the offices of the Federal Electoral Commission, demonstrators found sacks full of ballot papers marked with Milosevic's name. They were dumped into the street below. While firefighters tried to extinguish flames in one part of the parliament, protesters were busy setting wooden walls ablaze elsewhere in the building. Waving flags and still shielding their eyes and noses from the tear gas, people stood on the buildings windowsills and balconies - joyous, triumphant and exhilarated. There were also moments of terror. A man trapped in a ground-floor room began to suffocate from smoke. Protesters outside yanked heavy iron rails from the window and managed to extricate him. Later, a group of protesters unreeled a fire hose and used it to fight the ground floor flames. They were joined by several fire trucks and the fire was eventually brought under control. The parliament building went up in 1932 as a symbol of democracy in the new state of Yugoslavia that had risen from the ashes of World War I and the Austro-Hungarian empire. It then became German headquarters during the World War II, then a rubber-stamp legislature under the communist rule of Marshal Josef Broz Tito. In the 1990s it was transformed into a stronghold of Milosevic's nationalist regime. Now, as night fell, it had become the smoke-blackened backdrop to a huge rally at which Kostunica was once again appealing to Milosevic to give up power peacefully. More Related News Yugoslav regime appears to collapse after day of revolt A career of battles for power by Yugoslavia's reviled leader with BC-Yugoslavia Highlights in President Slobodan Milosevic's career Cheney and Lieberman agree Milosevic should go, oppose use of U.S. troops Japan welcomes uprising in Yugoslavia, urges Milosevic to step down Prime minister urges Milosevic to relinquish power Russian nationalists condemn Yugoslav opposition victory as "coup" China watches warily as Yugoslavia heads for change
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