200,000 Serbs Rally to Push for Control of Two Provinces

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia —  More than 200,000 Serbs rallied Saturday in four towns to push demands for Serbian control over two neighboring autonomous provinces.

The Communist Party leader of the northern republic of Slovenia said, meanwhile, that the country is “on the threshold of imposing emergency measures” after violent demonstrations.

“We have to sober up and stop this insanity,” said Milan Kucan.

His speech at an official rally in Slovenia came during intense politicking before a meeting of the Communist Party’s Central Committee. The meeting, which will start Monday, is expected to shake up Yugoslavia’s leadership during its worst crisis since World War II.

Protest in Sombor

Hundreds of thousands of Serbs demonstrated in Sombor, in the autonomous Vojvodina province near the Hungarian border, and in Leskovac, 90 miles south of Belgrade in the republic of Serbia. Two smaller demonstrations occurred in the Serbian town of Indija and in Stara Pazova, in Vojvodina.

No violence was reported, but all of the protesters pledged allegiance to Slobodan Milosevic, the powerful Serbian party chief, who is seen by critics as using the widespread dissatisfaction in a campaign to take over the national leadership.

Milosevic (pronounced mee-LOW-sheh-vitch) wants Serbia, one of Yugoslavia’s six republics, to be given more control over Vojvodina and another autonomous province, Kosovo.

Kosovo, which was once inhabited mostly by Serbs, is now predominantly ethnic Albanian. Serbs accuse Kosovo’s leadership of discriminating against Serbian residents.

In an interview with the Austrian magazine “Die Wochenpresse,” Milosevic said that “of course there will be a constitutional crisis” if Serbia is not given greater control over its two autonomous provinces, adding, “I hope the crisis can be resolved.”

Although he did not elaborate, among Milosevic’s demands is an amendment to Yugoslavia’s 1974 constitution that would give Serbia more judicial and administrative control over Kosovo and Vojvodina. Of the six republics, only Serbia has autonomous provinces.

Milosevic, 47, told the magazine that “the moral and economic crisis is worsening from day to day” in the country.

He blamed “good-for-nothing” bureaucrats for “stealing time while pretending to work” in a country grappling with an inflation rate of 217% and a plummeting standard of living that has led to demonstrations in recent weeks by pro-Serbia supporters.