PEOPLE POWER.

IN YUGOSLAVIA, TEENS TAKE TO THE STREETS TO TELL EUROPE'S BIGGEST WAR CRIMINAL IT'S TIME TO GO

When the end came for Yugoslav dictator Slobodan Milosevic, 16-year-old Dejan Stanisavljevic was in the crowd of young people, many in their teens, jammed in front of the Parliament building in the capital city of Belgrade. Their goal? Nothing less than the overthrow of Milosevic, who had dragged his country to defeat in four wars in the 1990s and won worldwide condemnation as an accused war criminal. He had refused to give up power after losing an election to an opposition candidate 11 days earlier.

"Everyone knew there were going to be changes because people badly wanted them," Dejan says. "In the end, thousands of people showed up at the Parliament. I just wanted to raise my voice to change the government."

In those chaotic moments on October 5, hundreds of youths--many of them members of a student opposition group called Otpor--fought their way through the sick burn of the tear gas and burst inside the Parliament building. Soon, black plumes of smoke poured from the building as flag-waving throngs stormed the halls.

Milosevic (mee-LOH-suh-vitch) finally got it. He resigned the next day, saying he wanted to spend more time with his grandson. The day after that, Vojislav Kostunica (koss-TOO-neecha), a mild-mannered constitutional law professor who had soundly defeated Milosevic in the September 24 vote, was sworn in as President.

Milosevic had ruled for 13 years, presiding over the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1991 and 1992. Using crude propaganda to whip up nationalist hatred, he led his own republic of Serbia in wars against Yugoslavia's other republics. His armies were charged with war crimes for their "ethnic cleansing," in which non-Serbs were driven from whole regions and thousands of civilians were killed. Milosevic was charged with war crimes himself for his role in the 1999 attack on the Serbian province of Kosovo, which had left 1.5 million ethnic Albanians homeless and as many as 10,000 dead. A NATO bombing campaign that shattered Yugoslav bridges, roads, and power plants convinced Milosevic to withdraw from Kosovo in June 1999. (See "A Bloody Chapter," page 16.)

At first, most Yugoslavs didn't mind Milosevic's warmongering. But they did finally blame him for the international reaction to it--the NATO bombing, economic sanctions that prevented most trade with foreign countries, and the resulting economic deterioration of Yugoslavia.

MARCHING FOR CHANGE

"We just want the Yugoslav currency, the dinar, to be stronger, the economy to be better, we want to see higher salaries and higher living standards," says Dejan, who aspires to become a soccer player. "And we want soccer teams to be able to play their matches here."

Whatever their motives, the young people of Otpor were instrumental in the rebellion, marching through the streets with drums, whistles, and even baby rattles, and waving their flag, which bore a clenched fist.

Milosevic badly miscalculated when he called for new elections last summer. After capitalizing for years on a divided opposition, he was shocked to discover that 18 opposition parties had united behind Kostunica. In the two years since Otpor was founded by disgruntled students, Milosevic had angered many older Yugoslavs by arresting 1,500 members of the group. Otpor quickly began a series of protest rallies. Using a simple message--"He's finished"--the group persuaded Yugoslavs that Milosevic could be ousted.

"We were the young of Serbia, the shield that accepted the kick and bite of the regime, allowing Mr. Kostunica to campaign calmly," says Srdja Popovic, an Otpor leader. "And we told our members never to cease quoting [the late Argentine writer Jorge Luis] Borges when they emerged from jail: `Violence is the last refuge of the weak.'"

When election day came, Kostunica won more than 50 percent of the vote, but Milosevic refused to accept the results. Otpor helped to organize massive protests against the dictator that culminated in the storming of the Parliament building.

Yugoslavia's new regime has already made the country less isolated. Other European leaders are visiting Kostunica, and President Clinton has talked to him on the phone. Economic sanctions will likely be dropped in coming weeks. "Today," says Kostunica, "Yugoslavia and Serbia have joined the community of democratic nations."

Yet Kostunica has his work cut out for him. If he can't get the Yugoslav economy running, allies of Milosevic are ready and waiting to pounce. Another sore point: the U.S. is eager to have Milosevic prosecuted for war crimes, but Kostunica says he is against turning Milosevic over to the UN International War Crimes Tribunal--although he says the former dictator may face charges in Yugoslav courts.

But for the nation's youth, the divisive issues are already ancient history. At a recent rally celebrating the new, democratic Yugoslavia, Marija Krsteski, 13, who was there with her schoolmates, gave her opinion on the state of the nation: "I'm for Kostunica," she said. "He's cool. And my mum says he's nice, smart, and handsome." And she and her friends started to giggle.

With reporting by New York Times reporters ROGER COHEN, STEVEN ERLANGER, and CAROTTA GALL in Yugoslavia.

A Bloody Chapter

When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1989, the most intense fighting in Europe since World War II broke out in Yugoslavia, a nation of six republics long bound together under Communist rule. Some key events:

December 1991: After the Yugoslav republic of Bosnia declares independence, Serbia, the largest republic, embarks on a campaign of "ethnic cleansing," depopulates entire regions of Bosnian Muslims. In a Serbian siege of the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, thousands are killed.

December 1995: Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic signs the Dayton Accords, negotiated in Dayton, Ohio, ending fighting in Bosnia and lifting economic sanctions against Serbia.

February 1999: In retaliation for Serbian attacks on the province of Kosovo, NATO bombs Yugoslavia. Milosevic's forces drive more than 1 million ethnic Albanians from their homes, killing as many as 10,000. The UN War Crimes Tribunal indicts Milosevic for war crimes. He withdraws his forces from Kosovo in June.

September 24, 2000: Opposition candidate Vojislav Kostunica, 56, beats Milosevic in presidential balloting. Milosevic demands a runoff.

October 5: Crowds demand that Milosevic step down, and later attack and burn the parliament building.

October 6: Milosevic resigns.

People Power

FOCUS: How Young People Rose Up to Help Topple Yugoslavia's Dictator

TEACHING OBJECTIVES

To help students understand how a grassroots revolution overthrew the dictatorship of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic--and what it means for that war-tom nation's 10.6 million people.

Discussion Questions:

* How did the Yugoslav people force Milosevic from office? What objections did they have to his regime? How were their concerns different from those of the international community?

* Should the U.S. and other countries pressure the new President of Yugoslavia to turn over Slobodan Milosevic roan international war-crimes tribunal?

* Should the U.S. be sharing peacekeeping duty in Kosovo, in southwestern Yugoslavia?

CLASSROOM STRATEGIES

Background: One reason for Yugoslavia's upheaval is that the nation did not exist before World War I. After the war, provinces of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire and the state of Montenegro joined together. In an area the size of Wyoming, there were four major languages and two major religions. Ethnic tensions were high.

Critical Thinking: Note the observation that Milosevic used "crude propaganda to whip up nationalist hatred." How was Milosevic able to stir up such hatred? How can one person cause millions to quake in fear?

Try discussing this analysis of Milosevic's strategy: Ohio State University professor John Mueller writes in the journal International Security: "A mass of essentially mild, ordinary people [in Serbia] unwittingly and in considerable bewilderment came under the vicious and arbitrary control of small groups of armed thugs [Milosevic supporters.]" If this was the case, how did the student group Otpor turn opinion against Milosevic? Consider the quote from Borges, that "Violence is the last refuge of the weak." Is this true?

Debate: Ask students to debate these questions: Did Milosevic rule by force, against the will of the people? Did most Serbs support him until his rule brought international sanctions and economic ruin? Can both statements be-true?

Web Watch: For information on Bosnia, Tijana Basurovic's home ("Voices"), log on to www.cco.caitech.edu/~bosnia/ bosnia.html. For information on Yugoslavia, log on to www.odci.gov/cia factbook/index.html. Hit "S" for Serbia.