Three years after a massive popular uprising toppled the regime of former Yugoslav strongman Slobodan Milosevic, Serbian activists say the wheels are falling off the movement for democratic reform.
Pro-democracy activists were to take to the streets of Belgrade yesterday, the third anniversary of the uprising, not in celebration but in protest at the failure of the country's post-Milosevic leaders.
Three years ago yesterday, after days of peaceful but rowdy protests in downtown Belgrade, hundreds of thousands of people surrounded and invaded the federal parliament building in a massive show of popular will.
The autocratic nationalist who had led the country into war with its neighbors Croatia and Bosnia, as well as NATO and its own ethnic Albanian minority in the southern province of Kosovo, had finally lost control.
His regime, stacked with cronies and sycophants with links to organized crime, was replaced.
But less than two years later even the leader of the reformist government, the late Serbian prime minister Zoran Djindjic had come to the conclusion that the movement had fizzled.
Djindjic told reporters last year that he had "lost hope" in his earlier belief that the democratic groundswell of October 2000 could be harnessed and transformed into a sustained political movement.
Months later, in perhaps the biggest blow to the movement he had helped to lead, Djindjic was assassinated.
His murder in March shocked the country and led to a police crackdown on organized crime. A total of 44 people were indicted for charges from murder to criminal association as a result of months of intense investigations.
Of those, 15 were charged with organizing Djindjic's assassination.
Two presidential elections failed due to insufficient voter turnout last year and most observers believe the November ballot stands little chance of success.
None of the main opposition contenders, including former Yugoslav president Vojislav Kostunica and ex-Yugoslav deputy prime minister Miroljub Labus, are even bothering to contest.
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