ANTI-government demonstrators and riot police clashed yesterday after another protest rally in Belgrade, while the Organisation for Co-operation and Security in Europe (OSCE), backed Serbian opposition claims that it was robbed of recent local election victories.
Witnesses said police, some in plain clothes, used batons in street fights with the protesters who jeered as they left the demonstration past cordons of riot police.
At least one person was beaten unconscious and two foreign television crews were attacked and had their cameras smashed.
The former Spanish prime minister Mr Felipe Gonzalez, representing the OSCE, confirmed opposition victories over President Slobodan Milosevic and his ruling socialist party, the SPS, in Belgrade and 14 other towns.
Soon after Mr Gonzalez announced his verdict in Geneva, the news spread to Belgrade and supporters of the opposition Zajedno (Together) coalition, who were participating in the 38th consecutive day of protest marches.
The crowd of some 80 000 cheered Mr Gonzalez's report which added weight to mounting international demands that Mr Milosevic respect democracy.
Mr Gonzalez, who headed an OSCE fact-finding mission to Belgrade this month, called on the 53-nation grouping to issue an "urgent appeal" to authorities and political forces in Yugoslavia to "comply with the will expressed at the polls by the citizens".
He said authorities should accept opposition victories in 22 disputed municipalities, including the nine in Belgrade.
Mark Brennock adds:
The Tanaiste has blamed the Serbian authorities for the heightened tension and violence in Belgrade, saying they have failed to heed international calls on them to show restraint.
"The current crisis in Belgrade can only be resolved through peaceful dialogue," Mr Spring said in his capacity as President of the Council of European Union Foreign Ministers. "Such dialogue cannot be carried out at gunpoint."
Mr Spring warned that "any action by the Serbian authorities to repress the rights of the Serbian people can only lead to the further diplomatic, political and economic isolation of Serbia". He said the Serbian government should hold dialogue with the opposition "in the dispute over the undemocratically annulled November 17th local election results".