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Pressing a strategy of legal challenges and popular pressure to get 
President Slobodan Milosevic to concede that he lost elections Sept. 
24, Serbia's opposition vowed to shut Belgrade and the country down 
on Monday in what would be the first general strike in this country 
since World War II. ``Monday is a crucial day, when schools won't 
work, students and teachers come onto the streets, the shops and cafes 
won't work and a great majority of Belgrade will block traffic,'' 
vowed Zoran Djindjic on Sunday. Djindjic is a leader of the democratic 
opposition coalition. ``Tomorrow will be a day when Belgrade comes 
to a halt.'' The opposition hopes to block major roads and highways 
all over Serbia, to cut off oil refineries and electrical stations, 
to shut down schools and especially public offices and ministries, 
to try to show to Milosevic that he can no longer command the country. 
Already, there have been some blockades and work stoppages, most notably 
in the mine of Kolubara, about 40 miles southwest of Belgrade. The 
opposition's candidate, Vojislav Kostunica says he won the Sept. 24 
presidential elections outright with more than 50 percent of the vote, 
and that Milosevic and his Federal Election Commission organized electoral 
fraud to justify a second round runoff next Sunday. Kostunica has 
vowed to boycott the second round as unnecessary. He has challenged 
the Election Commission's results in the Constitutional Court after 
an appeal in a lower court was rejected. Kostunica has appealed to 
Greece and Russia to help mediate the electoral dispute and recount 
the votes. Russian President Vladimir Putin, after talks with French, 
German and American officials, offered to send Russian Foreign Minister 
Igor Ivanov to Belgrade to mediate, but Milosevic rejected the offer, 
according to American officials briefed on a conversation between 
Putin and President Clinton. Russia has been an important Milosevic 
ally, helpful with energy, credits and international support. But 
German officials said Sunday that in a telephone conversation on Saturday, 
Putin agreed with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder that Kostunica 
had won the election. There was no confirmation from Moscow, which 
would mark a major defeat for Milosevic in his effort to convince 
his own people that he was not defeated outright by Kostunica. Two 
senior Russian diplomats arrived in Belgrade late Saturday for talks 
with the government and opposition leaders. Some opposition leaders 
said they believe that the pressure beginning Monday must work quickly 
on the Milosevic government, forcing a confrontation between people 
and the police and fracturing the ruling circle before the runoff 
election scheduled Oct. 8. If the civil disobedience strategy fails, 
there is still the possibility of asking voters to come out again 
next Sunday to prevent a Milosevic victory by default. (BEGIN OPTIONAL 
TRIM) Kostunica cannot easily reverse himself on participating in 
the runoff election, but his name will appear on the ballot in any 
case. It is possible, some opposition leaders said, that the Serbian 
Orthodox Church, which has already recognized Kostunica as the first-round 
victor, could ask people to vote. A Serb analyst, Aleksa Djilas, said 
he believes that Kostunica's rejection of a second round is a mistake, 
and that voters would understand a change of heart. ``If people vote 
again, Milosevic would surely lose, and such a huge fraud to win would 
be obvious and unlikely, and if it were that big, the wrath of the 
people would be enormous,'' Djilas said. ``A boycott induces passivity. 
Why not say, `Let's drive it home, we are not afraid.''' Milosevic 
tends to give in to the inevitable to save himself when other options 
are foreclosed, as he did to end the war in Kosovo, said Djilas, a 
temporary scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington. (END 
OPTIONAL TRIM) While there is enormous anxiety in the ruling coalition, 
with officials coming to their offices only to talk or calling in 
sick, there have been few signs of an open break with Milosevic. On 
Friday, he responded harshly in a Socialist Party meeting to suggestions 
that he concede to Kostunica, officials said, and his sudden visit 
on Saturday to a graduation ceremony at a military academy, with his 
two top generals, was perceived by the opposition as a warning that 
he would not go without a fight. At the same time, even official figures 
show Milosevic trailing Kostunica by more than 10 percentage points, 
and his aura as an elected president has been badly tainted. Even 
officials who are careful now say it is unlikely that he can remain 
president long. They speak of a scenario where Milosevic concedes 
to Kostunica but remains in office until January or even June, then 
names himself federal prime minister, since his coalition controls 
the federal parliament. Others believe that once Milosevic concedes, 
it's winner-take-all, and that even his allies will move to Kostunica. 
State media are beginning to crack. More than 60 reporters at Vecernje 
Novosti, a popular tabloid the state took over in March, have signed 
a petition demanding a return to balanced news coverage within 24 
hours. In an open letter, the journalists demanded the paper ``stop 
linking itself to the interests of a narrow political party or person, 
but only to the truth and the will of the people as expressed in the 
elections.'' There is a similar petition at Radio Belgrade, part of 
the state system, and in a traditional socialist stronghold of Zajecar, 
Timocka Television said it would no longer rebroadcast the state news. 
Eight local radio stations said they would also stop broadcasting 
state news. There have been abundant rumors that Milosevic's wife, 
Mirjana Markovic, their son, Marko, and daughter, Marija, left the 
country to go to Russia, but government officials said they are still 
in Serbia. Markovic herself was seen Sunday in the family's hometown 
of Pozarevac and appeared on state television news tonight to denounce 
the West for trying ``to produce hatred that will push people into 
civil war.'' On Saturday, Marko went to opposition headquarters in 
Pozarevac to tell them that his father had not lost the elections 
and that he himself would remain in the country.