Activists detained in Serbia

Otpor leader Branko Ilic addresses students in Belgrade

By Nick Thorpe in Belgrade

The Yugoslav authorities have continued their clampdown on the student protest organisation, Otpor, with a total of 35 activists detained by the police nationwide on Saturday.

Warnings by both the army high command and the interior ministry on Friday that demonstrators would not be allowed to interrupt the smooth functioning of the state are being interpreted by opposition leaders as an attempt to keep the size of opposition rallies to a minimum.

It is exactly a week since the head of the regional government in the northern Yugoslav province of Vojvodina, Bosko Perosevic, was shot dead by a lone gunman.

Rallies are continuing on a daily basis

The authorities immediately announced that his 50-year-old assassin was linked to both the opposition Serbian Renewal Movement and to Otpor.

And despite the denials of both and evidence to suggest that the killer was the next-door neighbour of the victim and bore him a personal grudge, Otpor activists have since then been detained in large numbers.

State officials now describe Otpor as a terrorist and fascist organisation and several hundred of its activists have been detained by police in towns across Serbia. They are normally released after questioning.

'Climate of fear'

Early next week parliament is expected to pass a tough new anti-terrorist law which would give the police sweeping powers to arrest and detain without trial.

Opposition commentators say this is an attempt to criminalise Otpor and to create a climate of fear in which all opponents of President Milosevic are afraid to demonstrate.

Daily rallies are continuing in protest at the government seizure of television and radio stations critical of the government, and opposition leaders have called on their supporters to take part in a mass demonstration in Belgrade on 27 May.