Word: strongman
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...dawned even on the out-of-touch Milosevic that his people were ready to retire him. In an astonishing moment Friday night, the strongman who had ruled so long through his control of television stood stiffly before a camera he no longer owned, his jaw trembling slightly as he said he would step aside. He conceded electoral defeat and congratulated the man he "just learned" had outpolled him. But ever defiant, he warned he had no intention of bowing out altogether. After a "rest" spent visiting with his grandson Marko, he would be back to rebuild his Socialist Party...
...more trick up his sleeve. From his balcony overlooking the delirious crowd, Kostunica cried, "A great and beautiful Serbia has risen up just so Slobodan Milosevic will leave!" But to make sure, he urged the people to stay in the streets all night just in case the deposed strongman tried to call out the army...
Dictators almost never go gently after elections. And if ever one has had a compelling interest in staying on, it's Slobodan Milosevic. Yugoslavia's malign strongman of 13 years and mastermind of four ever more savage ethnic wars lives under international indictment for crimes against humanity. But, suddenly, the man who successfully depicted himself as at one with the Serb people has lost his aura of invincibility with the stunning official admission that he came in second in last week's presidential ballot. No one knew which of his nighttime hideouts he was holed...
CHARGES DROPPED. Against former Indonesian President SUHARTO, 79; in Jakarta. Judges pronounced the ailing ex-strongman medically unfit to face corruption charges. Earlier in the week his youngest son Hutomo ("Tommy") Mandala Putra, 37, was fined $3.5 million and sentenced to 18 months in jail for corruption; Hutomo's lawyers will appeal...
...strongman may have been banking on the possibility that the opposition coalition would fracture in the heat of violent confrontation that threatens to turn into a civil war. Or that its loose knit alliance would be no match organizationally for Milosevic's security forces in a national battle for power. But that depends on the security forces remaining loyal. To hold on to power in the face of an insurrectional challenge, Milosevic would need his security forces to use violence against demonstrators - and there were plenty of signs in the Belgrade Thursday that troops won?t kill fellow Serbs...