Yugoslav Army Reportedly Pledges to Steer Clear of Street Protesters

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia —  As tens of thousands of anti-government demonstrators marched through this capital Monday to mark Orthodox Christmas Eve, Serbian student leaders announced a promise from the Yugoslav army not to interfere in daily protests challenging President Slobodan Milosevic.

The reported military pledge emerged from a rare meeting between student organizers of the demonstrations and the head of the Yugoslav army. It appears to deprive Milosevic of another tool to fight his opponents, who are demanding that annulled opposition election victories be restored.

“We have reason to believe that [the] army will not use any kind of force,” Dusan Vasiljevic said after he and four other student representatives met with army Chief of Staff Gen. Momcilo Perisic.

Students have been a driving force in the 50-day-old wave of unrest, and on Monday they were prominent again. Led by priests, students and other activists defied a police ban and marched through Belgrade to the city’s principal church, St. Sava’s Cathedral.

Holding torches, candles and oak branches, a symbol of the Serbian Orthodox Christmas, the massive crowd heard a late-night Mass from the head of the church, Patriarch Pavle. Under a sky full of fireworks and smoke from burning branches, Pavle and other priests chanted ancient hymns and called for peace.

“Respect for law and justice obliges everyone to respect the freely expressed will of the people,” the cleric said in a Christmas message broadcast earlier.

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Across town, an explosion was reported at the headquarters of the Yugoslav United Left, the neo-Communist political party run by Milosevic’s wife, Mirjana Markovic. No one was hurt in the blast, which the party blamed on an “explosive device” that damaged the building.

The church, a critic of Milosevic in recent years, expressed its support for the opposition last week and accused the government of pitting Serb against Serb to provoke bloodshed in a bid to retain power.

The army, on the other hand, has remained largely neutral in the unprecedented fight to force democratic reform on Milosevic. After Monday’s meeting between Perisic and the students, the military press office quoted the general as saying the army favors a “democratic” solution to the current crisis that would be in keeping with international norms and help the rump Yugoslavia--made up of Serbia and tiny Montenegro--rejoin Europe.

The language appeared to indicate tacit support for the opposition. An international delegation recently investigated the Nov. 17 municipal elections and found that the opposition won 15 races that Milosevic annulled.

“We are on the same side because we both want to respect the constitution,” said student spokesman Cedomir Jovanovic, who attended the meeting. Vasiljevic, the other student representative, said the group “received firm assurances that the events of 1991 will not be repeated.”

In March 1991, student protests over state control of the media were quickly crushed when Milosevic rolled army tanks into the streets. Two people were killed, while scores were injured and arrested.

The army has been at odds with Milosevic for some time. Many officers blame him for losing wars in the former Yugoslav republics of Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina that stranded tens of thousands of Serbs as refugees.

By offering even nominal support to the students, the army may be saying that the cause of shoring up Milosevic is no longer worth fighting for. To deal with the demonstrators, however, Milosevic has turned to a better-equipped, better-paid special police force that has remained obedient.