Yugoslav opposition urges strikes

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia -- The Yugoslav opposition is calling for massive strikes in an effort to force President Slobodan Milosevic to accept election defeat.

Goran Svilanovic, an opposition leader, said the general strike would be a show of power. "We don't expect violence because we have a clear majority."

The announcement came as the influential Serbian Orthodox Church said it recognised opposition candidate Vojislav Kostunica as Yugoslavia's new president-elect.

VIDEO In Montenegro, new alliances are being considered among Milosevic supporters. CNN's Nic Robertson reports Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media) CNN's Alessio Vinci shows the celebration Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media) Browse the video archive of CNN's Yugoslavia election coverage     IMAGE GALLERY Images from the historic vote     AUDIO What will the opposition do now? CNN's Alessio Vinci reports. 810K/37 sec. WAV sound     MESSAGE BOARD Peace in the Balkans     RESOURCES Yugoslavia election information

During a meeting of the Holy Synod, its highest body, the church appealed to Kostunica and his camp to "take over the helm of the state, its parliament and municipalities, in as peacefully and as dignified a manner" as possible.

Meanwhile, Democratic Party leader Zoran Djindjic added his voice to the call for demonstrations, saying the opposition would "call citizens to a total protest and total resistance, a total boycott, a peaceful general strike."

"We will call on people not to send their children to school, for theatres and cinemas not to work, for everyone to go out onto the streets and stay on the streets until he who wants to be president by force gives up his post," he said.

The announcement followed a ruling by the Yugoslav electoral body that Milosevic and Kostunica must undergo a second round of elections.

The opposition has continued to assert that it won outright in Sunday's polls, accusing Milosevic of vote rigging.

In an address to 200,000 supporters in a Belgrade square on Wednesday night, opposition leaders vowed not to compromise with Milosevic.

"This time it will not take them 88 days to accept the truth, they have less than 24 hours to do that," Kostunica said in a rousing speech.

He was recalling the 1996-97 campaign of nightly protests that eventually forced Milosevic to admit defeat in municipal elections, whose results the government was accused of falsifying.

Kostunica did not say what the opposition would do to support its assertion, based on figures from activists at polling stations around the country, that he took over 50 percent of the vote.

Contradicting what opposition and some Western governments called overwhelming evidence of Kostunica's absolute majority, the electoral commission said the outcome was inconclusive and it voted 10-3 to hold a second round.

"Based on the final results from 10,673 polling stations... presidential candidate Vojislav Kostunica won 2,474,392 votes, or 48.96 percent, and Slobodan Milosevic 1,951,761 votes, or 38.62 percent," the commission said in a statement.

But the results differ from preliminary figures that showed Milosevic with 40.25 percent and Kostunica with 48.22 percent.

Milosevic supporters, who control the commission, sought to explain the difference on Thursday by saying the number of registered voters had been clarified.

But Sinisa Nikolic of the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS) said the opposition had been prevented from inspecting election material.

Asked about the commission's decision, Zoran Djindjic, one of the DOS leaders and manager of Kostunica's election campaign, said Milosevic could no longer treat his people like fools.

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