(19 Aug 1999) Natural Sound
About 150-thousand protesters - chanting "resignations" and "Slobo go" - have rallied for Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's ouster in one of the biggest anti-government demonstrations Belgrade in years.
As the rally began, a tear gas canister was hurled near the speakers' stand, triggering a brief stampede.
One man was carried from the scene, apparently injured.
But the rally continued despite the strong smell of tear gas.
An estimated 150-thousand anti-government protesters took to the streets of the Serb capital.
They carried banners saying "Slobo, Please Just Go" and "You Sold Out Serbia" and chanted "Red Bandits".
The rally in front of the downtown parliament building was one of the largest anti-Milosevic rallies in more than two years.
At the start of the rally a tear gas cannister was thrown towards the stage.
One man was carried from the scene, apparently injured.
Opposition leader Zoran Djindjic told the crowd, "The people have stood up and will not sit back till the changes are made" and said "Milosevic must go for Serbia to be free."
Djindjic added "This time we'll go all the way. It's either him or us."
The opposition leader gave the Yugoslav president 15 days to resign saying or "the whole of Serbia will rise up."
A senior figure in the Serbian Orthodox Church, Father Atanasije Rakita, read out a letter from Yugoslavia's
pretender to the throne, Crown Prince Aleksandar Karadjordjevic, who lives in exile in London.
Rally organisers accused police of trying to intimidate their supporters by warning people to stay away because of possible trouble.
Riot police were deployed on side streets, but were not visible in front of the parliament building.
In an apparent attempt to keep people away, Belgrade police said on Wednesday they arrested a man with a "highly explosive device" and warned of possible bombing attacks at "massive public gatherings."
The authorities claimed the rally was intended as a celebration of President Clinton's birthday on Thursday and in support of what they called the NATO "occupation" of Yugoslavia.
Anti-Milosevic protests began in Serbia after the NATO air campaign left the country badly damaged, impoverished, isolated and without control over the southern province of Kosovo.
The campaign was launched to force Milosevic to accept a peace plan for the separatist Kosovo province.
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