Montenegrin authorities slap ban on further pro-Bulatovic

rallies Podgorica Secretary Centre chief Goran Zugic on Wednesday night banned further rallies by supporters of outgoing Montenegrin President Momir Bulatovic, the independent Belgrade-based news agency Beta reported.

A senior member of Bulatovic's political faction meanwhile said his supporters would observe the ban on further rallies.

Bulatovic's supporters started the daily rallies on 12th January in front of the Montenegrin Assembly building in protest at what they describe as fraud in last year's presidential elections.

The republic of Montenegro and its larger neighbour Serbia make up Federal Yugoslavia.

The agency said the rally organizers were told to inform the protesters to disperse immediately as a result of the outbreak of violent clashes in the city, which left some 44 policemen and four civilians injured on Wednesday.

Beta quoted Predrag Bulatovic, the vice-president of Momir Bulatovic's political faction, as telling Radio B92 that the demonstrations would not resume tomorrow, and that his faction would comply with the ban.

Predrag Bulatovic said that the group of about 100 people who were still in front of the Montenegrin Assembly building was a gathering of "free citizens" and that Momir Bulatovic's political group was no longer organizing them.

BBC Monitoring (http://www.monitor.bbc.co.uk), based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.